Wash. Phone Line Said Intentionally Cut

A fiber optic cable failure disrupted telephone service for more than 60,000 customers, and authorities said it appeared the cable was intentionally severed.

Similar outages two years ago have never been explained.

The latest outage disrupted service in Bellingham and other scattered areas in Whatcom County for five hours Wednesday. It was traced to the unexplained failure of a fiber optic line in Stanwood, about 60 miles to the south in Snohomish County, Qwest spokesman Michael Dunne said.

Customers could call their neighbors, but not outside their local area, Dunne said. They also could not call 911.

Police and FBI agents were investigating.

“It does appear the breakage of the fiber was intentional,” said Jim Powers, an FBI agent in Bellingham.

Fiber optic phone lines in Snohomish County were severed twice in two days in September 2001. The phone blackouts in Whatcom County underscored the vulnerability of the county 911 system. The cases were never solved.

When asked whether the outage Wednesday was related the 2001 disruptions, Powers replied, “That is of the utmost concern to us.”

A system of cables along the Interstate 5 corridor links Bellingham’s long-distance lines to a switch in Seattle.

Qwest is planning a redundancy system to maintain full phone service in case of similar damage in the future, Dunne said. The work should be completed by the end of the year.