In a manhole below Fontainebleau Drive, Louisiana State University researcher Chris Dunaway looks for termites on a BellSouth cable. You're looking at quite a bit of service interruption should one of those cables go,' said Don Clark, a BellSouth network operations staff manager. The Formosan termite's appetite and its ability to penetrate concealed and seemingly inaccesible niches in the region's infrastructure continue to surprise the people who must clean up after its latest meal. Eight miles out on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, Formosans somehow invaded creosote-treated drawbridge fenders. Sometimes, their feasting causes collateral damage.
Water eventually floods the cable and causes an explosion.
Officials at Entergy-New Orleans say they can't be sure the termites are causing the damage, because the explosion incinerates the evidence. The utility says its network automatically reroutes power around a dead cable. However, some explosions have caused blackouts. The termites have done similar damage to underground telephone lines around the city. Like the power lines, telephone cables contain paper insulation, and the termites have chewed through plastic sheathing, rubber and lead to get to it.