Editorial: When a Butterly Flaps Its Wings

by Lin McNulty

It was probably not a butterfly flapping its wings that severed the 14,000′ underwater fiber-optic cable between Lopez and San Juan Islands in the early morning hours of Tuesday, November 5. But the widely-acknowledged butterfly effect trope, whereby a small change at one place (a butterfly flapping its wings) can have large effects elsewhere, seems loosely apropros of the recent event as word spread from county agency, to individuals, to whole islands that the 911 lines were not working.

Shortly after 7 a.m., on Tuesday, when OIFR was advised by a volunteer member that he had tried to call 911 without success, it was confirmed that the 911 lines were down on Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw, as well as all inter-island telephone traffic. Immediately systems began to be put into place. An incident command center was set up at Station 21, volunteers were called in to staff substations, and plans to notify the public were into place. All calls for police, fire, and medical emergency would be routed through the business phone number at Station 21, where fire dispatch capabilities also enabled radio communication with the Sheriff’s Office dispatch in Friday Harbor.

It was determined that local media and social media were the most efficient ways to disseminate information, as a reverse 911 call, whereby the 911 system can alert us, did not work because, well, the 911 lines were down. By early afternoon a BREAKING NEWS post was made to Orcas Issues and we learned how to send out our first BREAKING NEWS email notification to our readers.

In the meantime, I had the opportunity to re-live my previous career as a 911 Dispatcher when I volunteered some time to help out in the ad hoc Orcas communications center. What I experienced there, although a bit chaotic at first, quickly became an efficient operation headed by OIFR volunteer, and former dispatcher, Rita Harvey. She rounded up another former dispatcher, Kathy Ciskowski, and along with volunteer firefighters, we handled emergency traffic. It must be noted, in capital letters, however, that Rita Harvey barely slept during the three days of the outage; yet, she appeared as fresh as a flower during the whole time. On Wednesday, Robin DeLazerda, the dispatch supervisor in Friday Harbor joined the team.

Although it was first thought that a CenturyLink cable had been severed by someone digging on Lopez, after phone crews arrived on the scene, it was determined that the problem was underwater and might take some time to resolve. Plans were then put into place to bring in trained dispatchers from Whatcom and Skagit counties if the problem were to continue for an expected two-three week outage.

Enter OPALCO, which suggested that CenturyLink “piggy back” onto their fiber optic system. The priority was to restore 911 services to all islands. Round-the-clock work then began late Tuesday afternoon to make that happen.

OIFR distributed flyers all around Eastsound to notify the public of the outage. On Wednesday evening, all volunteers were called in to the station to begin distributing information house to house, and reader boards were put up in strategic locations to make sure everyone knew.

On Thursday afternoon, it was reported and verified that 911 service for Lopez and Shaw had been restored. It was a few hours later that service was restored to Orcas, although that was preceded by about an hour of no phone service at all.

A big lesson learned during this process relates to islanders who may have a medical alert device. Those devices use the owner’s phone line to place a call to an off-island service. If the device is not able to complete the call, it keeps trying, thereby rendering the landline inoperable. Senior Center Director Marla Johns realized the need to have a database of those islanders so they could be contacted directly. After-hours calls to Orcas Medical Center are also routed to an off-island answering service.

As of this time, most inter-island telephone service, along with the all-important 911, has been put back in place. This is a temporary fix, however. The cable still needs to be repaired, or most likely replaced. Although no definite time schedule has been offered, it is expected to take several weeks for that to happen.

Calling to the mainland is still not possible unless you have a Verizon cell phone. Verizon phones apparently use tower to tower relays, while it seems that AT&T’s traffic at some point enters the CenturyLink fiber-optic cables. San Juan Island remains without internet capability, although the Courthouse has made space available for those needing to use the web. Why does the County have internet when the rest of the island doesn’t? They are hooked up to OPALCO Broadband, as are the schools, libraries, and government agencies on Orcas. If you are on Orcas and need to make an off-island call, Orcas Online has offered their VOIP (voice over internet protocol) services to the public.

If your ISP (internet service provider) is off-island (Rock Island or InterIsland for example) you have been unable to connect to the web as those lines run through that broken cable. This situation apparently still exists.

Orcas Issues cannot possibly express the level of gratitude we feel for those who pulled together to get us a quick fix, no matter that it’s only temporary. Twenty-four hour shifts with no sleep were not unusual, and in the case of CenturyLink and OPALCO workers, they are by no means finished. They still have much work ahead of them.

Isn’t it strange that we think we have control over absolutely everything nowadays? It’s good to be reminded that we are, after all, only human. While it seems we have an unlimited ability to respond, we don’t have ultimate control. There will always be a butterfly of some sort or another.