Unfortunately, essentially all internet, cellular and long distance (e.g., off the island) links are down on the island (and have been since about 11 a.m.). So, WVBI's streaming service is off the internet. We are still on the air on the island, however, and at the request of Beaver Island EMS we are letting islanders know that in the event of an emergency, rather than dialing 911 they should dial the Health Center at 448-2275.
The problem is reported to arise from trouble with AT&T provided facilities used by all of the commercial carriers on the island. The Petoskey News is reporting that the outage may continue until Sunday evening. The only off island connections at this time are the emergency services radios and that being provided by the microwave link CMU constructed last summer, which provides internet service at the CMU Biological Station and Beaver Island Community School.
If you are off the island and have an urgent, non-emergency need to reach someone on the island, please send us an email at programming@wvbi.net and we will do our best to connect you (though no one will be watching the email overnight). In the event of an emergency need to reach somebody on the island from off-island, we suggest you contact the Charlevoix County Sheriff's Office. And, to be clear, any type of emergency call on the island should be directed to 448-2275 until further notice.
Communications Outage; Emergency Calls Directed to 448-2275
Moderator: Gillespie
Communications Update
While it appears that our phones (mobile and landline) are back up and running, WVBI has checked with the 911 center across and they continue to advise against relying on 911 until the system is cleared by AT&T. Right now, the projected time for that is 8:00 p.m. on Sunday evening. The 911 Center reports that while 911 is working for some people on Beaver Island (and other areas in northern lower Michigan where service was disrupted)--they have reports of it not working for others in the same areas. So, both they and Beaver Island EMS advise that, until further notice, you call 448-2275 for emergencies on the island.