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Construction Crew Error Blamed For Merrimack Valley Phone Outages

HAVERHILL (CBS) - Hundreds of businesses in the Merrimack Valley lost their phone service for several hours Thursday due to a construction crew error in Lawrence.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz reports.

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A main phone line was accidentally cut, causing service disruptions in communities like Haverhill and Lawrence.

The phones were quiet inside Haverhill City Hall for nearly six hours, according to Mayor James Fiorentini. He was able to send out messages via e-mail and Facebook, but having no phone lines was an inconvenience.

"At the mayor's office itself, I'm able to make outgoing calls, but couldn't get any incoming calls, so we apologize to all our people for the inconvenience," said Mayor Fiorentini.

The phone lines were also down in over 500 local businesses. Fiorentini says that's a big loss for the day.

"Telephones for many businesses are their lifeblood. So, we're very concerned about our business," said Mayor Fiorentini.

The outage also affected the Haverhill Police Department, but it did not interrupt emergency 911 calls.

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