Phone Service Restored After Phone Cable Cut

GRAND FORKS (AP) — Frozen ground complicated the job of workers trying to restore long distance and emergency phone service after a fiber optic cable was cut, a Qwest spokesman says.

Qwest spokesman Kent Blickensderfer said the cable was accidentally cut by electrical workers between Grand Forks and Larimore on Tuesday afternoon.

“It took a little longer because you get a backhoe out there to excavate around it — the ground’s frozen and you have to be careful so that when you excavate around it, you don’t pull something else,” Blickensderfer said Wednesday.