At least four states experienced widespread 911 service outages on Wednesday evening. Most of the services were later restored, yet it remains unclear as to what caused the interruptions.
Law enforcement agencies areas of Texas, Nebraska and Nevada announced that outages had occurred in multiple cities and counties, with multiple authorities in South Dakota reporting the issue as “statewide”, but little detail was provided as to why the services went down.
Police departments in the affected states all reiterated similar issues that 911 calls appeared to be down on cellular carriers and in some areas, on landlines, but 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 told The Independent that an outage with carrier T-Mobile meant users could not call 911 on their cell phones. However, the city’s 911 services remained completely operational, according to Juan Hernandez, communication supervisor for the department.
The department told impacted residents to instead use a landline to contact emergency services.
Nearing the other side of Texas from Del Rio in the southwest, the Kilgore Police Department also reported 911 outages. In that case, the department said the 911 system “has been intermittently down.”
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 911 services were down and said that if someone called the emergency number on their mobile device, police would be able to see their mobile 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 in South Dakota, 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 calls from landlines were not working and their non-emergency number was also being impacted, but texting 911, like in other states, was still available.
Around two hours later, the 911 service was restored in Las Vegas, 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, with the Nevada State Police also providing an update a few hours later to say 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 telling citizens to call their administrative line or to text 911 instead.
Like many 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.
While some authorities, like LVMPD, reported that 911 services were not working via landline, other areas, like Chase County in Nebraska, stated that landlines could still get through.
The Chase County Sheriff’s Office also added that 911 was down “for all cellular carriers except T-Mobile”.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told The Independent that their Office of Emergency Medical Services is monitoring the issue.
