Local News

SAN JOSE (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ― Vandals severed multiple fiber optic cables on Thursday, leaving thousands of people in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties without cell phone, Internet and landline service for much of the day, police said.

As of late Thursday night, officials said phone service has been restored to most of the thousands of people in the San Jose area left without service because of vandals who severed eight fiber optic cables.

The large-scale outage which began about 2 a.m. affected both landlines and cellular phones for various AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and Above Net customers.

San Jose Police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez, when asked whether the severed fiber optic cables were the work of vandals, said, "that's a pretty good premise."

No arrests had yet been made, but police joined repair crews at the scene of the first four severed cables — located ten feet down a manhole on Monterey Highway, north of Blossom Hill Road in San Jose.

Police said there was evidence that someone removed the manhole cover and severed the cables.

Hours later, authorities found three other locations where fiber optic cables were similarly cut — near Hayes Avenue and Cottle Road in San Jose, in the 1700 block of Old County Road in San Carlos and along Bing Street in San Carlos.

Police said the incidents were related and the locations were being treated as crime scenes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said while the sabotage acts were criminal, there was no evidence of terrorrism.

In addition to criminal vandalism, cutting the cables could result in state or federal criminal charges.

"I pity the individual who has done this," San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis said of the strength of investigators' leads and the evidence collected so far.

Legally, additional criminal charges are possible, Davis said, "If we find out there are victims who did not receive 911 services as a result of these actions."

Santa Clara County declared a state of local emergency as a result of the widespread outage affecting their south county area. 

"Our main concern is 911. If someone is having an emergency and can't make a phone call, they should go to the nearest firehouse, police station or hospital emergency room," county spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said.

"We have people at those areas with radios" that are still operational, she explained, allowing police and fire personnel to communicate with one another to coordinate emergency response.

Sheriff Laurie Smith said her department doubled patrols in Morgan Hill, Gilroy and San Martin since the outage. She also sent sheriff's Search and Rescue Teams to major intersections in each of those cities to help if needed.

The SJPD's Lopez noted that parts of south San Jose were also affected by the outage, "specifically near the Coyote area."

Saint Louise Hospital in Gilroy canceled all elective surgeries to keep capacity open in case of an emergency, according to the county's Office of Emergency Services.

In addition, patrol cars and fire trucks were stationed at over a dozen different shopping centers in the South Bay. Also, personnel were going door-to-door conducting welfare checks on vulnerable populations like seniors and the disabled.

There were no reports of any major injuries since the beginning of the outage, according to San Jose fire chief Ken Waldvogel, who also was not aware of anyone who needed to flag down a police officer or visit a fire department due to an emergency.

Santa Clara County President Liz Kniss thanked the array of city and county offices that worked together to maintain safety and order, she said, in the face of a very unusual emergency situation.

"Currently we are ready for earthquakes, we are ready for fires and most everything else," she said. "We weren't ready for cables being clipped in South San Jose."

Verizon Communications spokesman John Davies said service for 52,000 of its landline and Internet customers in Santa Clara County, mainly in the Morgan Hill and Gilroy areas, was restored around 5 p.m. — although customers in Santa Cruz County were still without service.

Customers of other phone carriers also remained without service as the evening hours set in, although 911 service had been restored for all of Santa Clara County.

AT&T spokesman John Britton said his company was working hard to restore service, but the process entailed repairing the hundreds of tiny strands inside the fiber optic cables.

AT&T was dispatching status updates for its customers on Twitter at www.twitter.com/attnews.

Britton explained that the vandals must have been well prepared to sever the thick, strong cables — some of which were the width of a silver dollar and covered in tough plastic.

He said the vandals also seemed to be knowledgeable about accessing fiber optic lines, noting that "somebody had the proper tool to remove the manhole cover."

The company announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. AT&T said anyone with information should call (408) 947-STOP.

Police were investigating whether or not the incidents could be linked to the Apr. 5 expiration of a labor contract between AT&T and the Communication Workers of America.

CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson said the union wouldn't condone any such action and she was confident it had nothing to do with AT&T workers.

So far no strike had been called and workers remained on the job, she noted, as talks between the union and AT&T continued over healthcare and employment security issues.

Throughout the South Bay on Thursday, numerous businesses, gas stations and banks shut down because there was no credit card or ATM access due to the Internet and phone outage. IBM's offices in San Jose also sent some employees home for the day.

"If you are going to need money tonight, find an ATM before you reach South San Jose," Emergency Services spokeswoman Kirsten Hofmann Hofmann advised.

The city of San Francisco reported its Internet access had been disrupted, but 911 and 311 phone service was not affected.

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