SPEARFISH - Midcontinent Communications cable TV, Internet and telephone service was restored for Northern Hills customers about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, three hours after a truck knocked out the company's fiber-optic line.

The outage affected about 4,000 customers in Spearfish, Sturgis, Belle Fourche, Lead, Deadwood and Central City, officials said.

Tom Simmons of Micontinent Communications said a truck apparently backed into the company's overhead line, as well as a power line.

"We had to wait awhile until the power line was repaired first, but the guys got it taken care of, and we were back up after about three hours," he said.