A bad day for North Bend

Published 2:37 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

NORTH BEND _ City residents were without telephone service

for much of last Friday after a work crew disconnected a phone-company

cable. That same day, businesses were evacuated along West North Bend Way

because of a natural gas leak.

Carol Ellen, a spokeswoman for CenturyTel, which provides

telephone service to North Bend and the Valley, said the disruption was the result

of an accident.

“Some old cable was being removed underground by a

contractor of ours, and they inadvertently disconnected the wrong cable,” she said.

The contractor was working near the intersection of Second and Main streets.

The crew disconnected the cable at about 9 a.m., Ellen said.

CenturyTel was able to restore telephone service by 6:15 p.m. Approximately

1,100 customers were affected.

Later that morning, workers from Puget Sound Energy were called

to shut off a natural gas leak at the McGrath Hotel.

Dorothy Bracken, a spokeswoman for Puget Sound Energy, said a

three-fourths-inch pipe that connected the natural-gas meter to the building’s

gas line was broken while workers were remodeling the building.

Local fire and police personnel evacuated employees from

businesses near the McGrath Hotel and blocked off North Bend Way between

Main Street and Bendigo Boulevard.

Bracken said Puget Sound Energy was notified of the leak at 10:12

a.m. and had a crew on the scene about 30 minutes later. Utility employees

shut off the valve that directed natural gas to the building and the street was

reopened.