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Beaver Blamed For Temporary Loss Of 9-1-1 Service In UP

CALUMET (AP)- A beaver is getting the blame for the loss of 911 service for several hours Tuesday in parts of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

The beaver chewed through a phone line about three miles south of Calumet, local emergency management officials told WLUC-TV. The outages affected all of Keweenaw County and northern Houghton County on Tuesday morning, but service was back by afternoon.

And the beaver may be a repeat offender. Officials said there was a phone outage in the area two years ago, and the beaver is a suspect.

Authorities said people in the 337 telephone exchange, which are the three numbers following the area code, were asked to call the Keweenaw County sheriff's department for emergencies. People in the 289 exchange were asked to call the Copper Harbor Fire Department for emergencies.

"The phone system was compromised. That happens when this happens, and we've worked with AT&T in the past to try and resolve this issue," said Houghton County Emergency Manager Jack Dueweke. "And I think we've come up with the only way to do it, to have a little halo, a little secondary point of entrance into the system and we're all hoping that happens."

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.

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