Phone and internet for some residents is just returning, six weeks after a wildfire.

Big Sur resident Dana Carnazzo flips through a yellow folder of invoices and prepares to call a few clients as her office gently rocks with the ocean gusts. For the last 46 days, many of her shifts have featured unmatched views of the Pacific, but she has had to battle the roar of Highway 1 traffic and work around a steering wheel.

Since the Colorado Fire, which sparked on Jan. 21 in Palo Colorado in Big Sur, Carnazzo has had no landline or internet service, both provided by AT&T. To maintain her business, where she helps coordinate weddings and other events, she drives her Honda CR-V from Bixby Creek Road to a pull-off just south of Hurricane Point, a spot known to offer a few bars of cell phone service during desperate times.

In a statement shared on March 7, AT&T said the company was “working as quickly as possible,” to restore internet and home service.” Carnazzo and her neighbors say they’ve received no communication or update from the company over the last 46 days. AT&T officials declined to be interviewed, and write by email they’ve “shared updates with county officials.” County officials say their limited communication with AT&T began only last week when they reached out to the company following resident concerns.

Lacking official details from AT&T, it’s unknown exactly how many households are impacted by the prolonged outage; county officials and residents say it’s between 20 and 22. Colleen Courtney, policy adviser to County Supervisor Mary Adams, who represents Big Sur, says AT&T officials said service would be back by Monday, March 7. As of noon on March 8, Carnazzo and at least some of her neighbors were still without service.

Alison Mitchell, whose family has lived in Big Sur since 1963, says with AT&T silent and no landline, locals have had to rely on a game of telephone, receiving second – or third-hand information from the likes of a neighbor who talked to a neighbor who spoke to an AT&T contractor. “Or something like that,” Mitchell says.

In rural Big Sur, landline telephones offer the most reliable form of telecommunication. Without it, residents depend on spotty satellite connections or driving to town for cell service.

Communication is key in Carnazzo’s work, and she has already lost two clients since the service went out. She says she is “starting to feel litigious.”

As day turned to evening on March 8, Carnazzo says her landline is half-back – all calls, she says, are being forwarded to her sister’s phone.