Being able to call families on Christmas or wrap up post-holiday returns and errands in the days after is key part of the season for many, but a Christmas Day bombing in Nashville threw a large wrench in the plans for businesses and others in the Athens-Limestone area over the holiday weekend.

Customers reported issues within hours of the blast, which occurred in front of an AT&T transmission building in Nashville. AT&T brought in national disaster recovery teams to help restore service to those affected but said crews were having to work around the ongoing federal investigation into the incident.

In addition to phone lines and internet being down for residential customers, many businesses reported issues. Athens Walmart alerted customers via social media that it was open but unable to accept returns. The store also couldn’t handle credit card transactions or operate its Money Center, leaving the store cash-only until Monday morning, when service was restored.

In Harvest, Joe’s Pharmacy also took to Facebook to alert customers that credit card transactions and insurance coverage couldn’t be processed due to the outage. Refill requests through the pharmacy’s app could be placed by customers but couldn’t be viewed by pharmacists, and an emergency dial-up system became one of the pharmacy’s main ways for getting prescriptions ready for customers in need.

“The only thing up and running is Joe’s blood pressure,” the pharmacy said in a post Sunday.

As of Sunday morning, AT&T reported more than 65% of mobile sites affected by Friday’s explosion had been restored. That number rose to 96% by Sunday afternoon, with 60% of business services and 86% of consumer broadband and entertainment services also restored.

In a message posted Sunday afternoon, AT&T Communications CEO Jeff McElfresh said the disruption in service was caused by a combination of the blast and resulting fire and water damage to “a number of backup power generators.”

“I am proud to work with so many dedicated individuals who left their family holiday celebrations and willingly answers the call to work nonstop over the last few days to restore service under some extremely challenging conditions,” McElfresh said.

He announced certain charges would be waived to those in affected areas. A news release from AT&T specified the company would automatically waive service overage charges Dec. 27–31 for AT&T wireless and prepaid customers whose billing address or phone number was in one of 1,166 zip codes. Visit https://bit.ly/attnashvillerelief for the complete list.

“Our buildings have been damaged, but our determination to serve you and our community is undeterred,” McElfresh said. “You have my commitment that we’ll continue to work around the clock until service is restored. And we will continue to prioritize the security of all our facilities that serve customers across the nation.”

Investigators have yet to say what motivated the bombing or why the bomber chose that location. However, they have identified a man who died in the blast as a suspect and linked a vehicle identification number recovered from the wreckage to an RV that was registered to the man. Records indicate the man had experience with electronics and alarms, he had recently given away his vehicle and home, and he had told someone he was planning to retire from computer consulting.

Police were responding early Christmas morning to a report of shots fired in downtown Nashville when they found an RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. The audio switched to a recording of Petula Clark’s 1964 hit “Downtown” shortly before the blast.