NATCHEZ — Due to a cut fiber optic cable, Internet and cable television services were unavailable for a number of Natchez area homes and businesses on Thursday.

“At approximately 10:30 (a.m. Thursday), Media 3 from Ferriday, La., cut our fiber optic cable while attempting to run their own cable, said Trish Niemann, public relations director for Cable ONE.

“They not only cut our backbone fiber, but they also cut five fibers that feed all of our nodes. This impacted 100 percent of our Internet and phone customers and approximately 15 percent of our cable customers.”

She said a similar outage occurred about two years ago for the same reason.

“Since the fiber optic cable was cut in multiple places, it takes longer to repair,” Niemann said.

Brian Kirchhoff, historic properties manager for Longwood Plantation, said the outage caused extensive complications for morning operations — especially at the Longwood gift shop.

“I noticed it at around 10:30 a.m. this morning,” Kirchhoff said. “We use Cable ONE for Stanton Hall, Longwood and the Carriage House.”

Jeff Chandler, manager of Fat Mama’s Tamales, said he noticed the outage around 11 a.m.

“We use the internet to swipe cards — so it’s been an issue,” Chandler said.

Niemann said services were expected to be back up by 5 p.m. Thursday.