By Sam Walker of SamWalkerOBXNews.com and Connie Leinbach
The internet and phone outage caused by a damaged fiber optic cable on Pea Island Monday afternoon was repaired, and digital communications on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands was restored around 7:30 p.m.
At about 1:10 on Monday, a fiber optic cable was damaged, including 911 phone service, in the vicinity of the Pea Island Visitors Center, and a repair crew was dispatched, according to a Dare Emergency Services alert. The same message was also broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio stations in Buxton and Mamie in Currituck.
That is the same area where NCDOT crews had to rebuild dunes along NC 12 that were washed out by rough surf on Sunday.
Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative (CHEC), which feeds electricity to Ocracoke, reported that the fiber cut did not affect electric service to the islands.
CHEC reported to its customers that if they are off island and could not “see” their homes through devices like security systems or thermostats, this does not mean that the power is out, but rather Internet and cellular capabilities have failed.
While Dare County has Dare County Emergency Management’s “Compact Rapid Deployables” (CRDs) emergency set up at Hatteras Island fire stations to provide the public access to Dare County’s 911 Communication Center, Ocracoke has the Tekniam system.
Ocracoke’s county commissioner Randal Mathews got the Tekniam system in place last year after several such fiber cuts and he is working on expanding this system.
He said Dare County uses the CRDs because the area from Pea Island to Hatteras is too large to establish a Tekniam system.
When internet and phone is lost, people on Ocracoke can go to the places that have the Tekniam modules, or places with Starlink, to get onto the internet.
Tekniam modules are located at the Hyde County Sheriff’s office, the Community Center, the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Company and the Harborside Motel.
When an outage occurs, islanders can go to any of the buildings listed above and search for HYCO and no password is needed
Another access line is: OINC-BIZ. The password for that is: TEKbiz456!
Several visitors joined the Ocracoke Observer staff in the Community Center to access the Tekniam system.
“It’s the first time I’ve been in the Community Center in the 40 years I’ve been coming here,” noted Matt Amoroso of Philadelphia.
His companion, Kate Rack, had to use the internet for a work project and was happy to take a few minutes away from the beach to finish a job.
“I don’t like not knowing what’s going on,” she said about the outage, “but this is an amazing resource.”
Several other visitors and islanders wandered to the Community Center during the afternoon to tap into the internet.
Others went to The Ocracoke United Methodist Church, whose doors are open and which has Starlink with no password needed.
I thought this was just our once a year surprise bonus week for visitors, so they can truly take a vaca from everything.
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