Noon update
What we reported below still applies, but damage just becomes more apparent now that power crews are clearing us to enter certain areas. We now estimate more than 200 spans of fiber need repair, more than 125 of them in Spokane and many others in the Snohomish County area. We’re on it, but continuing to plan to supplement crews in Spokane with crews from Western Washington.
8 a.m. update
Crews today are swarming a number of damaged areas throughout Washington, with 196 spans of cable reported down, more than half of those in Spokane. We know of 19 locations where fiber optic cable has been damaged. And of course there’s damage an individual homes and in individual neighborhoods. We’re shifting resources around: several techs have come up from Portland to fill in on parts of Western Washington, and then several techs have gone from Western Washington to Spokane, an area which has taken significant and record damage.
We are often unable to provide a repair ETA because of the extensive damage to the network. Oftentimes, we cannot enter areas until power crews have completed their restoration and made the area safe. It’s sometimes only then we can see the extent of damage and can make repairs. In addition, as power comes up throughout a region, crews move around.
This is also why there can be a lag time between when power comes up and when your services are restored. The good news is that more than 99 percent of the time, when your power comes up, your Xfinity products and services come back up. If you don’t see the services return, it’s good to perform a powercycle to “freshen up” the equipment. On some occasions, you may have power at home but not Comcast services. This is usually due to damage in the network around you. Both power crews and our crews are working to restore services to every single customer. We are grateful for your faith and patience.
We remain committed to restoring service in the most safe and timely manner possible. Our dedicated team of technicians, engineers and customer care representatives are working overtime to restore services to each and every Comcast customer.
For a comprehensive view of the storm aftermath through social media, click here to see what is appearing with the hashtag #wawx.
