A lightning strike shortly after noon near Linwood has disrupted service to about 4,000 Sunflower Broadband customers in Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties. Service is not expected to be restored until midnight

“The further we get, the more damage we find,” said Rod Kutemeier, director of customer support and marketing for Sunflower Broadband.

Kutemeier said the lightning strike downed power lines, damaging nearly half a mile of fiberoptic cable in three separate locations and necessitating replacement of the damaged cables.

Customers in southern Leavenworth and western Wyandotte counties are affected, Sunflower Broadband General Manager Patrick Knorr said. The towns of Basehor and Linwood are without Internet, cable and phone access. Customers in Tonganoxie are without comprehensive phone service, but cable and Internet are working. Kutemeier said phone service in Tonganoxie allows customers to call other Sunflower Broadband customers, but a damaged connection is preventing them from calling customers of other companies.

The outage also affects customers in Bonner Springs, Piper and Kansas City, Kan. Customers in Lawrence are not affected.

Kutemeier said Sunflower Broadband will credit affected customers for one day of service.

“At this point, we’re sorry it happened,” he said. “It certainly was out of our control, but we will be taking care of them.”