TWC Divisions Largely Unscathed Following So. Cal Wildfires
Minimal Damage, Customer Outages After Fires Rage Throughout L.A. Area
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 11/20/2008 4:48:00 AM MT
Time Warner Cable's Southern California division dodged significant damage in the wildfires this week in three counties.
The operator is the dominant provider in the area, serving the neighborhoods impacted by the Sayre fire—which destroyed 500 mobile homes and other structures in Los Angeles County—and the Freeway Complex fire which was spread by high winds into Riverside and Orange counties, burning 30,305 acres and destroying 190 homes and damaging 123 residences.
Time Warner officials said that despite the ferocity of the fires, damage to cable plant and loss of services were minimal. The North Division, which serves the area near the Sayre fire, did lose services for a time when the city of Los Angeles mandated rolling power blackouts in anticipation that the fire would destroy major transition lines which would cause an outage cascade.
In the Metro division, about 200 customers in the community of Tujunga lost service and the operator was prevented from immediately beginning repairs because fire services had closed the roads needed to access the damaged plant.
In the Southern Division, services were also impacted by short power outages and the company closed its retail locations until the fire danger had passed.
To assist residents who had been rousted from their homes, the company supplied video drops to evacuation centers in the three counties to allow victims to follow news coverage of the blazes. Time Warner also set up service centers in the evacuation areas, so customers could have the billing suspended to their damaged or destroyed homes or order call forwarding of the digital telephony service if they had arranged new accommodations elsewhere within the service area.
The fires were declared contained—but not out—by midweek after the winds died down in the region.
