A 5.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked Southeast Alaska at about 3 a.m. Friday, July 25, cut Alaska Power and Telephone cell phone and Internet service in Haines, as well as ACS cell phone service, for nearly a day.
The break in service also affected some AT&T customers in Southeast.
The problems were attributed to a break in an underwater fiber optic cable near Juneau maintained by ACS. AP&T uses an ACS line in Juneau to connect its service to the Lower 48.
For many businesses and residents, that meant disruptions or delays. Some local stores that couldn’t process credit card payments stayed open but accepted cash or checks only.
Offices served by GCI Internet – including the bank, Haines Borough Public Library, and the local court and state offices – saw no interruption.
Janine Allen at the public library said computers there were busy Friday with a steady stream of users. The library saw 447 customers that day, compared to 280 on the previous day.
Service to the Haines Borough office was cut. “The big concern was the (assembly) meeting packet,” said deputy clerk Krista Kielsmeier, who typically emails a link to the PDF files of assembly agendas and related information to borough assembly members. “We just had (assembly members) come in and put them on (personal memory cards).”
Alaska Marine Lines terminal manager Michael Ganey said he closed the local freight office early. “We did whatever we could for the day. Shipping out is all done on computers. Without that, we’re pretty much at a standstill.”
Ganey said the office could have phoned headquarters, asked for printouts of information on the computer and had them faxed to the Haines office, but much information would still need to be entered into computers.