WAILUKU — A contractor doing work on Haleakala Ranch land damaged fiber-optic lines yesterday morning, disrupting emergency 911 calls, phone and Internet service for Maui residents, county offices, major resort hotels and businesses.

Pat Bustamante, president of Pacific LightNet, said the damage to a conduit containing fiber-optic cables happened around 9 a.m. on Haleakala Ranch land near the Maui Research and Technology Park in Kihei.
Bustamante said he did not immediately have available the number of customers affected by the outage.
"Pacific LightNet, along with other utilities operating on Maui, marked the locations of facilities to alert the contractor to not dig in or around the facilities," Bustamante said. "It is unknown at this time how the buried conduit was damaged."
There was no phone service at the Kalana O Maui building when Maui County offices opened for business, Maui County spokeswoman Mahina Martin reported.
Martin said phone service among offices within the county building was not affected, and the county's e-mail system continued working, although county-issued Blackberry phones were without service.
The telecommunications problem was widespread.
Verizon cell phone customers reported calls that would connect and remain for a few seconds and then disconnect. Internet access was affected for some businesses.
Carol Reimann, executive director for the Maui Hotel & Lodging Association, said her office phones did not work properly. She tried checking member properties and learned that the Kaanapali Beach Hotel, the Westin Kaanapali, the Kaanapali Beach Club and the Royal Lahaina were not getting incoming or outgoing phone service.
"Obviously, you know it's not good for business," she said. "Communication is everything in this day and age."
Martin said the county's emergency 911 telephone line was briefly affected by the phone problems, but calls were immediately rerouted to a different police dispatch center on Molokai. Dispatchers from the 911 call center at the Wailuku Police Station were using mobile computers and working out of the Lahaina Police Station, with some calls routed through that location yesterday. Unlike the Wailuku station, the Lahaina station was able to receive telephone calls yesterday.