Conventional telephone service was restored Thursday afternoon at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta after the facility's land lines were zapped by lightning earlier this week.
Until Thursday morning, the hospital had relied mostly on cell phones after losing its regular phones around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to hospital spokeswoman Diana Lewis.
By late Thursday afternoon, 100 percent of the hospital's phone service had been restored, Lewis said. She said the lightning strike had knocked out more than a dozen pieces of communications equipment as well as one of the hospital's power supplies.
The hospital's main number, 404-605-5000, had been the only one of four systems that had been working, and it was working only intermittently.
Lewis said patient safety was not at issue, and no other hospital services were affected. She could not say when full phone service would be restored at the hospital, at 1968 Peachtree Road.
AT&T and hospital crews have been working since Tuesday to restore service.
Please check back for updates.
--Dispatch editor Angel K. Brooks contributed to this article.
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