Bee Attack Leads To 7-Hour Outage
AUSTIN, TX. (AP) – About 130,000 rural customers south of Austin lost phone service for seven hours after bees attacked a construction worker.
The worker jumped off his tractor yesterday to escape the swarm, hitting a lever that lowered an auger that sliced a fiber-optic line. That cut landline, cellular and 911 emergency response services for the residents of the rural area in Hays County. Some digital providers in the area still had service.
It took county and telecommunication workers about three hours to determine the outage’s cause. Service was restored to most of the county by last night. Police and emergency workers told residents to go to local fire stations to report emergencies or, if their cell phones worked, to call alternate numbers that routed calls for help through a backup system.
