911 Service Lost After Fiber Line Cut North of La Grange

Fayette County lost 911 service Wednesday, June 12, after highway workers cut a fiber optic line on US 77 north of La Grange.

Contractors working for the Texas Department of Transportation recently began clearing the right-of-way along US 77 between La Grange and the Lee County Line. Fayette County 911 Coordinator Dawn Moore reported that the workers inadvertently cut a Frontier Communications fiber optic line on Wednesday.

The cut severed communications to the Fayette County 911 Dispatch Center, along with phone and internet service to many residents in the La Grange area.

“I reached out to our Frontier reps and they confirmed there was a fiber cut, and they eventually narrowed it down to north of La Grange where they’re starting to expand US 77,” Moore said.

Moore said Fayette County diverted 911 calls to Lee County dispatchers, who then relayed information to Fayette County first responders via radio.

“When this happens, we have contingency plans in place,” Moore said. “911 calls were rerouted to Lee County as our backup. We have a couple of different plans, but Lee County is our primary backup. So we established communication with them by radio. They receive the calls and radio back the information to our call takers, who can then send out first responders.”

Chief Deputy Randy Noviskie of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office said the contingency plan worked as designed.

“I haven’t heard of any (calls) that were delayed because of that,” he said.

Noviskie said the 911 Center was back in operation shortly before 8 p.m. The outage lasted about 11 hours.