Update: Services restored to most Hargray customers in Beaufort County following outage

A few hundred Hargray customers in Bluffton remained without services late Tuesday afternoon following a widespread outage.

Eddie Andrews, Hargray's director of marketing, said earlier Tuesday that about 5,000 customers were affected in all, with the most significant outages in Beaufort and Bluffton and some on Hilton Head Island.

Internet and cable television services were affected, as well as voicemail in some areas. The outage began around 10 a.m. after a fiber was cut by a construction crew on S.C. 170, Andrews said.

Services were restored as early as 12:30 p.m. in Beaufort, Andrews said, and in other parts of Beaufort County throughout the afternoon.

Hargray is still researching to figure out why the fiber was cut.

"We believe our locates were in place," Andrews said. Locates are colored flags that indicate where utilities and conduits such as Hargray's are located underground at a particular site.

Andrews said Hargray customers still without services should expect them to be restored by 7 p.m.

Follow reporter Ashley Fahey at twitter.com/IPBG_Ashley.

Related content:

• Cut fiber in Okatie causes Hargray outage, November 12, 2014
• 'Significant' Hargray outage blamed on cut cable, March 6, 2014
• Cut fiber caused Hargray outage for some Beaufort customers, July 23, 2013

This story was originally published January 5, 2016 at 12:51 PM with the headline "Update: Services restored to most Hargray customers in Beaufort County following outage."