Many Cable Customers Still Without Service

Hand in hand with electricity are telephone, cable TV and the Internet. For Cox Cable customers in Tulsa, when the lights went out, so did everything else. The News On 6's Rick Wells reports there is a Cox Cable crew from New Orleans restoring service in north Tulsa. They are returning a favor that dates back to Hurricane Katrina.

The Cox Communications crew from New Orleans is helping restore service to customers in the Tulsa area. On Tuesday, their work was focused on a neighborhood near Pine and Lewis.

"Oklahoma came down to help us with Katrina and we came up here to help Oklahomans for the ice storm," said Cox employee Mike Causey.

He and his crew have been restringing downed cable lines since last Wednesday. In one case, they found a piece of downed line between two poles. They had to untangle the mess, cut away the damaged cable and put up the new line.

"They put up new communication lines and attach it to the metal support beam. Splice in the electronics on the end and get the customer back up," said Mike Causey with Cox.

In addition to the guys from New Orleans, there are other crews from Louisiana, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Omaha, Kansas, Dallas and Memphis.

"We're moving along pretty quick. Power's moving along pretty quick. I don't think it's gonna be much longer," said Mike Causey with Cox Cable.

These guys figure they'll be here through the weekend, back home for Christmas, and then back here if they're needed. Some people are not discovering cable, internet or phone problems until the power comes back on.

The crews will string the equivalent of about seven miles of new cable one small piece at a time to get service back on. At least 8,000 Cox customers have damage to their service drops, the line that runs from the pole to the house.

The company is averaging about three days to make a service call, and they say if customers feel they need an adjustment on their bill, they should contact Cox Cable.