A cut phone line resulted in a large phone outage for many Boone residents Tuesday, resulting in loss of phone service, Internet and Lifeline usage for many households.
A crew hit the line while digging in an area that had been cleared for digging, but not disclosed to the crew when they called for locates on the area, located east of the Boone County Hospital.
The hospital, Public Health, Home Care, Boone Middle School, Lifeline customers and a large area of residential customers lost phone service as a result. During the outage, hospital calls were routed to the Boone Police Department, Home Care and Public Health calls were routed to the adult daycare center, and calls to BMS were routed to Boone High School.
Phone service was restored to Boone County Hospital, BMS, and Public Health, however many residents were still without phone service Wednesday.
Boone County Emergency Management Coordinator David E. Morlan said the outage appears to be east of Marshall Street, south of Mamie Eisenhower Avenue, and north of Cedar Pointe Golf Course, but he is unsure how far east the outage went.
Representatives from Qwest, the phone provider in the area, would not give an estimate as to when all phone service will be restored.

Reach editor Greg Eckstrom at geckstrom@newsrepublican.com.