(UPDATE 11:45 AM THURSDAY) Louisa Community Bank executive Gene Wilson said the bank is now open and getting back to normal after a Verizon, Inc. breakdown forced its closing Tuesday and Wednesday. Wilson said the system came back online at 10:45 this morning. A spokesperson who answered the phone at the bank said: “We are open, but are still limited to what we can do. We expect the entire system to be up and running later today.”

Technical problems with Verizon led to the closing of Louisa Community Bank this week

LOUISA, Ky — The Louisa Community Bank has been closed essentially since last Saturday, having not opened for business today (Wednesday) and only partially open Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday due to a major breakdown in their computer systems that are essential to operating the bank.

Kevin Mullins, the bank’s President and CEO said the incident, which involves At&T, Verizon and another company took place at about 3:00 am Tuesday morning and when bank employees tried to open for business, they discovered the computer system was not working properly.

Mullins, who has been at LCB since last September and is a veteran of the banking business, said his staff stayed in the bank and tried to cash checks and do some other transactions yesterday but decided there was so much confusion they should not open at all today.

Signs were placed on the drive-thru windows and the front door advising customers of the problem but several people became irate over the situation fearing they were going to lose their money or the bank had shut down.

“For the most part people have been very understanding and realize how these things can happen in the world of computers and we are going to make sure that any problems or inconvenience of our customers will be made up for,” Mullins said.

He said he has been told by AT&T and Verizon officials that the problem should be fixed sometime today. “As far as I ‘ve been able to find out, Louisa Community Bank is the only business in Louisa affected by the problem,” Mullins said. “But there are tens of thousands of other businesses throughout the southeasten part of the nation that have been affected.

Mullins released the following statement for The Lazer at 3:00pm today:

AT&T and Verizon Outages (06/01/2016)

For Immediate Release:

Kevin R Mullins, President & CEO

Louisa Community Bank experienced a communication failure due to a “massive outage” for AT&T and Verizon that occurred on Wednesday, June 1. Several states have been impacted by this outage.

AT&T and Verizon have escalated this issue to the highest priority. It is anticipated that the issue will be resolved today.

Mr. Mullins reported that this outage has prevented the Bank from communicating with the core processor that enables the Bank to process transactions. He noted this is similar to losing electricity in one’s home and not being able to operate one’s electrical devices.

The Bank will work with customers to ensure that their transactions are processed and that there are no negative consequences due to this outage. The Bank remains in contact with their Core Processor, which is also working on resolving the communication issues that AT&T and Verizon are experiencing.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and are doing everything that we can to ensure that AT&T and Verizon resolves this issue.

Please refer to the maps below that show the areas affected by the outages.

AT&T:

Phone: 800.288.2020

Outage Area Switches Noted Below