Residents and businesses across Casper Wyoming recently experienced a major internet outage around 8 p.m on Tuesday April 22nd and lasted throughout most of the night, into Wednesday the 23rd.. This affected many Spectrum and Verizon Wireless customers. This outage had been caused by a cable that was cut by people working for Bluepeak. 

This cut cable interrupted many businesses. Many students and teachers were not able to do homework, nor were they able to get on social media. So everyone handled this differently and did different things.

“I ended up just sleeping through the whole thing,” said freshman Grace Guzman. “There was nothing to get on, no social media, not even Wi-Fi for school work. So I figured why not just sleep through it?” 

The outage, which began around Tuesday evening, left many without access to essential online services, disrupting many daily activities and communications. For many students, the outage felt like a sudden and unexpected pause to their daily routines. Online homework platforms like Google Classroom were unreachable for some, leading teachers to delay assignments and extend due dates. Businesses struggled to operate without reliable internet access. 

Everyone had received updates through messages, social media, and local news outlets. As residents turned to different ways to communicate for two evenings.

“It’s a reminder of how much we rely on the internet for literally everything,” said freshman Teya Espinoza. “I couldn’t even check the weather or message my friends.” 

While some students made the best of the situation by reading, playing board games, or just enjoying a rare break from screens, others felt pressure of upcoming assignments and piles of homework without warning. Some felt pressure from not being able to just go on social media and talk to their friends. 

Service has been mostly restored, but the incident has sparked up conversations about what they did and what to do  in case this happens again. During the outage, community members have expressed their concerns about the reliability of internet services in Casper. As technology continues to evolve, the importance of the stable internet remains crucial for education, business, and social interactions in our increasingly digital world, and as we all get back online, one thing is clear, even a few hours offline can feel like a long time in today’s connected world.