LYNN — The police department battled a number of communication issues after an early Tuesday morning power outage on James Street.
The police station began experiencing issues with their main business line, 781-595-2000, around 4:30 a.m., according to Lieutenant Michael Kmiec. The trouble came after a telephone pole crossbar broke near 7 James St., which wasn’t reported until 7:30 a.m., said National Grid spokesman Bob Kievra.
“We lost the radio system and our phones for a little while and we didn’t get our Internet back until about 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday,” Kmiec said. “Thankfully we live in an age of technology, so the guys just called each other on their cellphones, which was a huge asset.”
James Street is located directly behind the police station, Kmiec said. When the electricity went down, the police station lost everything temporarily except the 911 connection, which runs on a backup battery. When the crossbar repairs were completed by 9:30 a.m., the electricity was restored, according to Kievra.
“When the electricity kicked back on, nothing in our systems clicked back over like it should have,” Kmiec said. “Everything was coming in and out for most of the day.”
The main phone lines were back on by 11 a.m. and the police station’s Internet company responded at 1:30 p.m., and were able to resolve the issue within 45 minutes. But, Kmiec said the station was still experiencing issues with email for the remainder of Tuesday.
“I think everything will be OK from here on out,” Kmiec said.
