When emergencies hit, you need partners who act like neighbors.
Mason City’s Water Treatment team and CLtel worked side by side to ensure safe, clean water continued to flow during one of the year’s worst storms. The real heroes were the City’s dedicated professionals who refused to compromise on safety, trying everything they could before asking for help.
When they did, both teams showed the power of local partnership and trust.
Disaster Strikes
Just before a major storm, the plant’s critical wireless link failed completely.
“That wireless link is our connection to City Hall,” Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Don Thorson explained. “Our email, internet. All gone. We couldn’t monitor river levels or communicate except through our cell phones.”
Worse yet, operators rely on remote access to keep systems safe without staffing the plant around the clock.
“If something went wrong, we’d have had to physically come in during the storm,” he said. “Without Internet, you’re somewhat blind. We might get an alarm, but we wouldn’t see what was going on or be able to operate remotely.”
Fighting for a Solution
Don’s team didn’t wait for someone else to fix it.
“We were on the roof, checking the radio link between us and another tower site,” he said. His team cleared tree branches, realigned antennas, and worked frantically with their IT vendor.
Nothing worked.
With time running out and the storm bearing down, they had to make a call.
Calling in a Local Partner
They called CLtel.
“Within less than an hour, Internet was back,” Don said. “I was expecting to be without it overnight. But they got five guys here quickly and figured out how to get it into the building. That was really impressive.”
CLtel’s team completed a task that usually takes weeks of planning and construction.
“They went the extra mile and stayed later than normal to get us back up,” Don added. “You just don’t see that kind of response, especially from the telecom industry. It was a tremendous asset for us.”
Coordination Under Pressure
CLtel’s response was anything but routine. Crews shifted their focus to the emergency, running fiber through muddy lawns, splicing fiber, and working under an ominous sky with tornado warnings in effect.
Inside CLtel’s home office, staff rapidly reprioritized work, wrote service orders on the fly, and assigned static IP addresses so the plant could get online immediately.
Relief and Partnership
When the final connection went live, Don and his team exhaled.
“That was a pretty good-sized relief,” Don admitted. “Honestly, that connection is invaluable these days.”
This is local partnership. Real people solving real problems together.
Even when the storm hits.
