Miner severs power and fiber optic cable, causing phone and internet outage

A fiber optic cable that was severed along with the power line at Swanberg Dredge on Tuesday, June 16 at noon, caused not only a power outage but also a lengthy outage of phone and internet service for Fastwyre customers, including the FAA. The power outage was restored soon after the incident, but it took several days before Fastwyre was aware of it and sent technicians to repair the fiber optic cable.
On Friday, Fastwyre technicians were on the ground in Nome, working on repairs.
By Saturday evening, phones were working again.
The outage was caused when gold miner Kenny Hughes, who last week began gold mining operations east of Swanberg Dredge, drove heavy equipment underneath the powerlines and became entangled in the power and communication lines. “It got snagged by an excavator boom traversing the driveway below,” Hughes said via text to The Nome Nugget.
Ripping the lines off caused a power outage, which was fixed soon after the mishap on Wednesday.
Nome Joint Utilities General Manager John Handeland said the outage affected customers on city feeder #1 including southern Nome and customers on the Council Road, along the Beam Road and Kougarok Road to Banner Creek.  “City Feeder #1 faulted when two line phases came together causing a short circuit when mine equipment came in contact with utility infrastructure,” Handeland said. “The line crew responded, clearing fault and making repairs.”
He added that he was grateful that no injuries occurred.
The fiber optic cable is not buried and is attached to power poles. The cable is connected to the Quintillion fiber optic network, coming off the ocean just east of the Beam Road. Once it hits land, however, operation and maintenance is under the ownership of Fastwyre, formerly TelAlaska, confirmed Quintillion President Mac McHale in a phone interview with the Nugget.
Fastwyre did not respond to a request for comment as of press time and out-of-state tech support representatives reached by phone last week, but not authorized to speak to the media, were not aware of the service outage.
The interruption to online connectivity prevented the National Weather Service online reporting of Nome’s weather and FAA-related circuits. A spokesperson for AT&T told the Nugget via email that the circuits are supported through satellite connections and involve equipment maintained by local providers and the FAA. 
At the Nome Airport, the automated surface weather observation station needs a functioning fiber optic connection to report weather online. Although online current weather conditions were not available, flight traffic at the Nome airport was not interrupted, as pilots were able to call to obtain updated weather conditions. Alaska Airlines Spokesman Tim Thompson said in an email to the Nugget that Alaska Airlines dispatchers called ASOS on the phone and obtained flight information prior to departure. “If an update is needed while the aircraft is in flight the dispatcher can send a message to the pilot via an approved messaging system on the aircraft,” Thompson said. “If we don’t get information we need from either agency regarding weather, we have to cancel, as we did earlier.” Thompson referred to an issue a few weeks ago, when Alaska Airlines had to cancel passenger and cargo flights when the ASOS equipment didn’t report visibility and the FAA’s Flight Service Station on Nome was closed. As no qualified weather observer in the Flight Service Station was there to provide weather observations, Alaska Airlines could not fly to Nome.
The FSS office is still closed as of press time.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Thursday, June 24 to reflect the restoration of service and a comment from Quintillion.