Hungry squirrel-caused fiber outage fixed, phone, internet restored at 5 La Pine, Sunriver schools; High Desert MS has water

(Update: More on squirrel cause)

La PINE, Ore. (KTVZ) – A squirrel chewing through a fiber optic line cut off phone and internet service Tuesday at five public schools in La Pine and Sunriver, but no other homes or businesses in the area, a TDS representative said. School district officials said the schools kept operating on normal schedules, and service was restored later in the day.

The outage south of Bend affected phone and online services at La Pine High School, La Pine Middle School, La Pine Elementary School, Rosland Elementary School and Three Rivers School in Sunriver, Bend-La Pine Schools spokesman Scott Maben said. BLConnect text messages said service was restored by 3:15 p.m. to the four La Pine schools and to Three Rivers by 4 p.m.

“School safety and emergency response systems are intact and unaffected by this service issue,” the school district said earlier in the day. “If you need to share an urgent message with one of these schools today, please call our central office in Bend at 541-355-1000."

TDS spokesman Mark Schaaf said crews were called in to make repairs. He later confirmed that the outage was "caused by a squirrel damaging our equipment."

That's a sad, yet fairly common cause of electrical power outages in the area - when squirrels or other animals touch things that can be deadly - but fiber optic lines, too?

"Like utility companies, it’s not uncommon for us to see squirrels chew through fiber like in this case," Schaf said.

Squirrels usually don't survive those power-line encounters. Schaf said he had "no word on the fate" of this little critter.

Meanwhile, repair crews restored water service Tuesday to High Desert Middle School in southeast Bend, after a contractor working on a nearby project cut the service line on Monday. Maben said Avion Water Company tested and cleared the tap water for consumption around 11 a.m.