Anticipated county wide telecommunications outage

2:31: An attempt to use bulldozers to repair the road to allow access to the communications tower by PG&E has failed, after the equipment sunk in the soft ground. Now, the hope to restore landline and cell phone service relies on a helicopter airlifting repairmen into the area. Sheriff Greg Hagwood said that ham radios are being installed to help with communications between communities in the county. The backup battery has supported communications longer than the original estimate of 1 p.m.

12:48 p.m. According to Sheriff Greg Hagwood, 911 calls will be routed to Sierra County where Plumas County staff will be standing by. A satellite phone will be used to communicate those 911 calls with Plumas County dispatch and staff will use radios to respond.

12:28 p.m.: Phone outage update: Plumas County Sheriff Greg Hagwood warns residents that the county wide telecommunications outage could last a matter of hours or it could be over a day. Power was lost to a critical tower and the back-up generators failed. The tower has been running on battery backup. A National Guard helicopter will airlift repairmen to the site, while bulldozers try to repair a washed out road to allow PG&E access to restore power. If emergency repairs cannot be made to the generators then a new generator would need to be airlifted into place. Phone service will be disrupted including calls to 911. Hagwood urges people to remain safe and shelter at home if possible. Some 911 service may be available by routing through Lassen County.

From the Plumas County Sheriff’s Department: This is not a hoax.  Today at 1:00 PM Plumas County is anticipating a county wide telecommunication outage, this is presumed to affect both wireless and landline phones. They are working on a solution as we speak. Please do not call 911 to test your line or call the administration lines to confirm the outage. We will provide updates as soon as we have them.

Advertisement