Verizon Wireless says it is still working to restore cellular service to the Panama City area.

In a release issued Monday morning, the company said, “We ask for patience as we urgently continue this painstaking work to restore communications to our customers in these areas. This is our top priority.

The company blames service outages in the Panama City area on “unprecedented damage to our fiber” caused by Hurricane Michael.

The company says crews are working around the clock to repair the damaged fiber infrastructure, and once it’s fixed, the company says it expects service to be restored to the Panama City area.

However, the company also says it is seeing other fiber lines damaged by some recovery efforts. According to the Monday release, "...as soon as we have fiber repaired and start to see sites come back on air, we experience new cuts resulting from other restoration efforts happening in the community such as clearing roads, residential property clearing, and replacing electric poles."

The company says, “Fiber is the connecting component of a network that carries data from point to point and is needed for both our permanent and temporary cell sites to be operational. While we have multiple fiber paths to carry data, the severity and intensity of the storm caused damage to all duplicate routes in the Panama City and Panama City Beach area.”

A spokesperson for Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said, “Verizon has been updating our office on their ongoing service restoration efforts. We continue to urge them to restore service as quickly as possible, particularly in the communities hit hardest by Hurricane Michael.”

Verizon is also giving people in the area an option to use their device.

In the release the company said, "...we have a Wireless Emergency Communications Center set up at our Panama City store, located at 411A E 23rd St, which is open from 10am-5pm and has service from a portable cell site that works with satellite connections. If you need to charge your device or connect with friends, loved ones or resources, we invite you to stop by that location."