Power wasn't the only utility knocked out during the storms

Jul. 9—Power wasn't the only service many Terre Haute area residents lost after the June 29 severe storm.

Many also lost their Spectrum internet and/or cable service.

Among those is Terra Vista subdivision resident Nancy Faulkner, who bundles with Spectrum and lost internet, cable, Wi-Fi and landline telepthone.

Faulker said her service was finally restored about noon Friday, but she remains frustrated by the slow response and the lack of communication from the company.

"As important as communications are in our lives, being without Wi-Fi and internet for eight days is a very difficult situation," she said. "And more difficult than that was not being able to get any response from Spectrum about the outage areas or how long it might take."

She said she received no texts or calls from Spectrum.

While Faulkner was able to talk to service representatives, she received no information other than that Spectrum was working on the problem and service would soon return, she said she was told.

"That was probably the most frustrating," she said.

She also lost power at her home, which was restored Tuesday evening.

Spectrum spokesman William J. Morand provided the following email response:

"Any time there is wide-spread storm damage, it is difficult (if not impossible) to apply a 'one size fits all' approach. ... There have been a myriad of contributing factors here, including loss of power, downed poles, lines, etc. Isolating and identifying the source of outages is often among the most difficult of tasks."

Morand added, "We had a number of sections of plant (infrastructure) down, many of which could not be immediately repaired prior to utility poles being replaced and/or safety concerns with power lines down, but we continued to work around this to every extent possible, utilizing temporary solutions, etc.

Also, he said, "We anticipate having nearly all of the infrastructure impairments resolved by the end of the day today (Friday). While we have already replaced hundreds of drops, we expect to have the remaining drops restored once the physical infrastructure architecture is fully back in place."

A "drop" generally refers to the service line from the road to the premises, he said.

He was not able on Friday to provide numbers of customers affected by loss of internet and cable resulting from the storm.

"It can take some time to differentiate between what were actually our outages, and those that were solely power-related," he stated.

Those who need to contact Spectrum with service problems can call 888-369-2408, he said.

As for Faulkner, she was glad to have service restored Friday, but still believes Spectrum needs to improve its communications with customers during weather-related outages.

"It's very difficult living in the dark when the service I pay for won't give me any information." she said, adding that she "pays well" for that service.

Sue Loughlin can be reached at 812-231-4235 or at sue.loughlin@tribstar.com Follow Sue on Twitter @TribStarSue