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At least four states experienced widespread 911 service outages on Wednesday evening before service was restored later for most of the areas impacted, yet it remains unclear as to what caused the interruptions.
Law enforcement agencies from South Dakota, Texas, Nebraska and Nevada announced that outages had occurred in multiple cities, but it was not immediately clear what exactly caused these interruptions.
Police departments in the states all reiterated similar issues, that 911 calls appeared to be down on cellular carriers, but that landlines could still reach the service and that texts to the emergency number were still operational in many areas.
In some areas, the 911 interruption appeared to last around two hours before authorities announced the service was restored.
The Del Rio Police Department in Texas, among the many agencies who reported the outage, stated that the issue seemed to be with a “major cellular carrier” rather than their own city systems.
“Our emergency services remain operational,” the police department said. “If you cannot reach 911 via your mobile, please use a landline or another carrier.”
Nearing the other side of Texas from Del Rio in the southwest, the Kilgore Police Department also reported 911 outages.
Other law enforcement agencies, such as the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, said that throughout the outage, citizens could reach 911 by text in most locations.
If this method was not working, they could still call the non-emergency lines of their local police or county sheriff’s offices, the department said.
Authorities in Sioux Falls also announced they were experiencing similar issues with their 911 services after it appeared that there was a “statewide” 911 outage in South Dakota.
However, approximately two hours after this report, the Sioux Falls Police updated residents to say that the 911 services had been restored
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department also acknowledged that the 911 services were down and said that if someone called on their mobile device, they would be able to see their number and would call back straight away.
They warned citizens not to try and call 911 in order to “test” the service, so the number can still be left open for emergencies.
Testing the service became an issue as the system went down on Wednesday night for other agencies too, such as the Rapid City Police Department, which said one of their dispatchers became “inundated” with calls from residents who were trying to see if the system was working.
“Each 911 attempt is getting a call-back from dispatch, however the workload generated from unnecessary calls is hampering their efforts to get appropriate resources where they need to go,” they wrote in a Facebook update, emphasising that the service is still only for emergencies.
The LVMPD added that their non emergency number was also being impacted, but texting 911, like the other states, was still available.
Around two hours later, the 911 service was restored, with the department stating that “all of the individuals who called during the outage have been called back and provided assistance.”
Emergency services throughout southern Nevada, such as in other cities within Clark County, had also been impacted, but the Nevada State Police updated a few hours later that the 911 services had been restored.
Authorities in Nebraska, such as the Dundy County Sheriff’s Office, also reported that their 911 services were down, saying that “callers will receive a busy signal when dialling 911,” and redirected citizens to their administrative line or to text 911 instead.
As most other agencies within the four affected states, the sheriff’s office announced over two hours later that their cellular and landline services were back up and running.
Source: independent.co.uk
