By By Chuck Bodiford
More than a week after power was restored to more than 90 percent of the area, cable service is still lacking through most of the Atmore area.
Mediacom, the cable company serving this area, expects to have cable service restored to 99 percent of its customers by Oct. 17.
"Atmore was hit very hard, and we are working very hard to restore cable service to that area and all our affected areas," said Jeff Walker, operations manager for Mediacom.
Walker would not give out how many customers were affected by Hurricane Ivan, but he did say the cable system suffered major damage as a result of the storm.
Mediacom brought its own crews from around the country to aid in restoring cable lines and it also hired outside contractors to work in this area, Walker said.
However, a visual survey of the Atmore area performed by the Atmore Advance Monday discovered two contractor crews working on cable lines and no Mediacom branded trucks on the city streets.
Walker said the company has run out of the signs it usually puts on trucks.
Walker said crews were working to restore feeder lines in the area, coming after power crews. Other cable installers are working to repair individual cable drops to homes.
Like power company work, as the major feeder lines are repaired, significant numbers of homes may have their cable restored at the same time, Walker said.
Meanwhile, satellite dish sales teams have taken advantage of the extended cable outage, with sales teams working out of parking lots around Escambia County.
Less Reed, a sales associate for SkyComm, a DirecTV distributor, said sales have been brisk, with as many as 100 signups for dish service per day around the area.
Reed said rumors circulating around the area put cable restoration as far away as November or even December. Dish installation dates have been pushed back as far as Oct. 30 due to demand, Reed said.
"We know if we don't get our customers restored, people will look to alternatives," Walker said. "We believe and we are working very hard to have nearly everyone restored by Oct. 17."