Charter Communications crews worked to restore service to customers without service on Thursday due to a fiber-optic cable being severed.
That morning, contractor crews installing lighting off Interstate-10 in Slidell accidentally bored through the Charter fiber line, Charter Tech Ops Manager Gabe Harwell said.
Crews responded by digging up the damaged area in preparation for repairs to take place that afternoon, Harwell said.
“This is probably one of the worst ones I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” he said.
Harwell estimated it would take between three to four hours to restore service.
“If we get this up in three to four hours, that’s pretty good,” Harwell said.
By Thursday evening, service had been restored.
Because of the damage, phone, Internet and cable TV services were down from Slidell to Carriere, he said.
Phone and Internet in the city of Picayune offices were also down due to the outage, Picayune Public Works Director Eric Morris said. Morris said that city operations continued in spite of the outage.