CenturyLink: Work to remedy weeklong ‘disruptions’ in Olympia and Tumwater nearly done

Contractors with CenturyLink are restoring service to customers in Olympia and Tumwater after an outage that lasted more than a week.

Kelly Williams of South Bay Excavating said his crew has been working around the clock since Jan. 29 on Capitol Boulevard at the Olympia-Tumwater border. Williams said the outage was caused by old underground cables that got wet.

As of Thursday, he said most customers should have their Internet and phone service back, and he expects to wrap up repairs by Friday.

The Olympian asked CenturyLink for more details about the geographic area and the number of customers affected by the outage. A representative from CenturyLink emailed the following statement:

“CenturyLink is aware that some customers in Tumwater may be experiencing disruptions to their services due to weather-related issues. Technicians are currently evaluating the situation and will work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this creates for our customers.”

One of those customers is Betty Lott, whose landline has been down since Jan. 24 and was still down as of Thursday afternoon. Lott lives on Tumwater Hill and has a cellphone, but said she prefers the clearer connection of a landline.

She’s had difficulty getting answers from representatives at CenturyLink, who initially told her that phone service would be restored Jan. 30.

“Thank goodness I have a cellphone,” she said. “I’ve always had a landline, but I’m thinking about going total cellphone.”

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 3:37 PM with the headline "CenturyLink: Work to remedy weeklong ‘disruptions’ in Olympia and Tumwater nearly done."