Cut cable leaves Hilton Head Time Warner customers with blank screens

All Time Warner Cable customers on Hilton Head Island lost TV, Internet and digital phone services Wednesday evening after another provider digging a hole for a utility pole severed a transmission line, a spokeswoman said.

Time Warner officials did not know how long the outage, which began about 6 p.m. and affected at least 10,000 customers, would last.

Spokeswoman Melissa Buscher warned the problem requires "a very difficult repair." She likened the procedure to a surgeon trying to repair a vein and said it would be complicated by the challenge of darkness.

The machine digging the hole apparently went too far, Buscher said. "It went deep enough and cut our fiber lines," she said.

Workers were on the job at 10 p.m., and more were on the way, Buscher said.

"We're working around the clock to get our customers on the island back up," she said.

Buscher did not know which provider was responsible for the outage but said Time Warner is investigating.