Bell Atlantic Provides Emergency Phone Services To Flood Stricken Bound Brook Residents

Bell Atlantic Provides Emergency Phone Services To Flood Stricken Bound Brook Residents

Technicians Get Green Light To Begin Restoring Phone Service

September 21, 1999

NEWARK, N.J. - Bell Atlantic is providing emergency phone services to victims of flood-stricken Bound Brook as company technicians receive permission from emergency officials to enter devastated sections of the community.

Bell Atlantic has installed 24 temporary phone lines at emergency command posts at Bound Brook High School and Lafayette Elementary School. Residents affected by the historic flooding can make free phone calls at these locations. In addition, Bell Atlantic Mobile has distributed 60 cellular phones to emergency services personnel.

Bell Atlantic also is offering free temporary Home Voice Mail boxes to help flood victims communicate and to obtain federal flood relief. Customers who subscribe to Bell Atlantic's Home Voice Mail service also can send and receive messages, even if phone service to their home or business is disrupted.

Shortly after 12 p.m. today, emergency management officials declared the heavily flooded downtown section of Bound Brook safe for access by utility repair crews. Bell Atlantic technicians immediately moved in, going door-to-door, to begin restoring phone service to more than 500 residential and business customers.

Bell Atlantic's Bound Brook switching facility, which serves 49,000 customer lines, has continued to operate despite the extreme conditions.

In other parts of the Bell Atlantic service area hard hit by Floyd, operations are almost back to normal, as thousands of technicians clear up any remaining individual customer problems.

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and information industry. With more than 43 million telephone access lines and nearly 10 million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market leaders in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of directory information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world's largest investors in high-growth global communications markets, with operations and investments in 23 countries.

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