PORTLAND — Time Warner Cable has restored internet and cable television service to about 350,000 customers in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The company’s services crashed at about 2:30 this afternoon after a redundant fiber-optic cable failed near Brattleboro, Vt., said Time Warner Cable spokesperson Andrew Russell. The cable was damaged by flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene, which passed over New England Sunday.

Russell said Time Warner was using the redundant line because the storm knocked out the company’s primary line.

“There was extreme flooding in Vermont, which caused the loss of a redundant line. Our engineers are on site and are working to get everyone online as soon as possible,” said Russell.

The outage has left roughly 350,000 customers in New England without service and left local companies unable to do business.

Will Zurkan, an employee at Portland-based technology firm Kepware Technologies, said his firm’s Internet and voice-over-Internet phone services cut out.

“Our entire phone and computer system is Internet based,” said Zurkan. “Our customers can’t even buy the products if they want to.”
 


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