Carbon County's Communication Center phone lines for emergency calls were restored about six hours after going down Wednesday morning.

According to county officials on Wednesday, the phone lines at the communication center, which handles all of Carbon County's emergency calls, were restored around 12:45 p.m. Other county offices affected were the prison and animal shelter, which are located next to the communications center on the top of the Broad Mountain in Nesquehoning.Until the lines were restored, all emergency calls were rerouted to neighboring Monroe County's 911 center. Two Carbon dispatchers were sent to Monroe to help with the overflow of calls, which included a death at Beltzville Lake.The problem with the lines began early Wednesday morning, just after 5:30 a.m.According to reports published in the TIMES NEWS yesterday, a tree fell on electrical lines along SR209 in Nesquehoning, just outside the Route 93 entrance. The downed tree caused the electrical lines to catch fire, which then fell onto telephone lines that served the communications center. Those lines began to burn.Some of the lines also fell onto the roadway, which reportedly caused a three-vehicle, rear-end crash.Nesquehoning police were called to the area about 6:15 a.m. for the reported crash.PPL and Verizon crews were called to the scene, and after cutting power from the lines, and removing the downed tree, worked to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.Traffic was slow-moving in the area for most of the morning as one lane of travel was shut down to complete the repairs.