Sign posted at RMV in Lawrence on WednesdayNORTH ANDOVER (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) Two Registry of Motor Vehicles branches remained closed on Wednesday as a result of a Verizon outage that impacted dozens of communities this week.
The RMV announced on Wednesday morning that branches in Lawrence and Wilmington would stay closed for the day as a result of the outage.
A Verizon outage also impacted the handling of 911 calls in North Andover on Monday and Tuesday.
Peter Judge, a MEMA spokesman, told FOX 25 that the agency provided 24 radios to North Andover Public Safety following the outage that occurred on Monday.
During the outage, all 911 calls were being handled either by re-routing or with radio assistance.
Judge added that other communities are also dealing with the outage, but they have a backup system and do not require MEMA assistance for handling emergency calls.
MEMA estimates that around 20 communities were impacted by the outage. At the height of the outage, 40 communities in and around the Merrimack Valley region did not have phone, Internet, or cable service.
Verizon sent out a press release on Tuesday morning saying that service had been restored to thousands of Verizon customers and restoration efforts continued for thousands more.
Officials at Verizon say the outage began on Monday morning after a fire under the Central Bridge on North Canal Street in Lawrence damaged Verizon cables.
