The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and courthouse complex suffered the loss of telephone service yesterday.  According to information received by the sheriff’s office, two fiber optic cables were cut somewhere between Lancaster and Warsaw, resulting in an area-wide disruption of telephone service. The disruption led to the loss of all radio communications for police, fire and rescue services until the emergency backup plan was enacted. All E911 calls were rerouted to the Northumberland Sheriff’s Office, which handled any fire and rescue dispatching for several hours.  Christina Hubbard, chief of emergency services for Lancaster County, opened the emergency operations center at the Kilmarnock rescue squad building and also provided emergency dispatching. 

The disruption of telephone service also affected the Lancaster magistrate’s office, which uses a dedicated line for processing court orders related to arrests and court bonds, as well as each of the Lancaster County court clerks’ offices, each with its own telephone link to the Virginia Supreme Court computer network. 

Verizon was able to restore services to the sheriff’s office by about 8 p.m., but there were still sporadic problems.  Surprisingly, internet access for the sheriff’s office was not affected, and e-mail notices were sent to radio station WKWI with information on the event.  Citizens were asked to hold all non-emergency calls until further notice, but to continue to call 911 for any emergency. 

As of 9 a.m. today all telecommunications services for the courthouse complex are in normal working order.