Phone Service Outage Affects Four Local Communities

A phone outage is affecting several local communities.

At least 600 customers in Munhall, Homestead, Whitaker and West Mifflin were cut off from communication Tuesday.

However, repair crews made some progress in restoring communication to hundreds of customers.

Verizon told Channel 11 that recent rains damaged several underground cables.

Crews will pump the flooded manholes that provide access to those cables over the next few days.

A spokesman for Verizon said they were able to save three of the four damaged cable lines.

The fourth line serves Munhall and will be replaced overnight Tuesday.

State and town leaders met with Verizon Tuesday to make sure emergency personnel can be reached during an emergency.

State Sen. Jay Costa says "One of the concerns of the elected officials and emergency management personnel was to make certain that Verizon has put into place the appropriate number of employees to come and fix the problem."

"They've done that; they are committed to working overnight and working until this job is done regardless of the fact that it's a holiday weekend," he added.

The phone company has set up a phone bank in case customers need to make a call.

Borough leaders also distributed cell phones to some high-rise communities.

Crews hope to have service restored by Saturday.