April 27, 2011 – Due to a large complex of severe storms, Comcast is apparently having an outage in Tuscaloosa. The Gadsden area feeds back to Tuscaloosa, so internet for Gadsden customers is down. The Comcast system in Gadsden is OK, so traffic will pass internally (for instance from a home on Comcast to a business on Comcast), but the internet connection in Tuscaloosa being down keeps customers from getting to the internet. We are working on finding out an ETR (estimated time to repair) from Comcast. This outage is also affecting phone service for Comcast customers.
April 27, 2011 – 8:55am – We just got word that the damage is actually in the Cullman area. There are Comcast crews from Gadsden and Huntsville headed to the damage, but they have not arrived to assess the problems yet, so there is still no ETR.
April 27, 2011 – 12:55pm – The word now is that the damage is actually in Tuscaloosa AND up north toward the Guntersville area. Some of the main circuits run through Tuscaloosa, and we have heard reports that 2 miles of fiber has been ripped out as a tornado came through. Crews are onsite working, but more storms are coming, so they are not sure if the crews are going to be able to work straight through. Right now, they are expecting a resolution some time tomorrow.
April 27, 2011 – 11:00pm – Comcast seems to have resolved their issues or at least enough of them to restore connectivity to Gadsden. It has been a rough day weather wise, and we applaud the Comcast crews for getting it done!
April 30, 2011 – Comcast had another outage lasting from approximately 3:30pm to 11:30pm today. This was apparently due to the ongoing efforts in the heavily damaged Tuscaloosa area. We expect more periodic outages in the coming days, although Comcast has not made any specific announcements.