911 Outages Hit Several States

Updates From Real News No BS

South Dakota:
According to the Rapid City Police Department, residents of Rapid City and Pennington County can use 605-394-4131 or 605-394-2151 to contact dispatch for incidents requiring assistance from first responders.

Nevada:
According to Las Vegas police, 911 landline calls are currently not working as of 7 PM. They add there is no estimated time for when that could be restored.

Las Vegas Police said If you call 911 from a mobile number, operators will be able to see your number and will call you back right away. They asked civilians to “not attempt to call 911 to check.”

Nebraska:
In a statement, Cherry County Emergency Management said, “We are aware of a statewide 911 outage. If you are trying to reach Cherry County Dispatch please call 402-376-1890.

More to come, updates to be posted below:

8:15 PM PDT:
Texas & Florida also reportedly experiencing issues with 911 call centers.

8:21 PM PDT: Del Rio (Texas) said there is an outage with a “major cellular carrier” affecting the ability to reach 911. They add that their systems are still operational.

8:24 PM PDT: Issues now being reported in parts of Iowa (no official statement, just claims from people in Iowa).

8:26 PM PDT: Nevada State Highway Patrol now reporting outages in southern Nevada. Says to call 775-687-0400 if you are in an emergency.

8:40 PM PDT: No updates yet.

9:01 PM PDT: 911 call centers in South Dakota are back up.

9:09 PM PDT: 911 call centers in Las Vegas are back up.

Next day:
10:50 AM PDT: FCC confirms “we are aware of reports of 911-related outages and we are currently investigating.” Currently there are no outages.

The Washington Post Writes

Four states have experienced widespread outages of 911 lines, affecting emergency calls throughout South Dakota and swaths of Nebraska, Nevada and Texas overnight, officials said.

Most lines were down for one to two hours, although services appeared to be gradually restored overnight.

The exact nature of the outage appeared to vary across states — some 911 systems reported problems with calls from landlines, while others said customers using mobile phones were struggling to get through. Some police departments or sheriff’s offices said that 911 callers were receiving a busy signal, and they encouraged people to contact them via non-emergency numbers or by text.

No cause for the service disruption has been publicly identified. However, in Texas, the Del Rio Police Department said the issue was caused by “an outage with a major cellular carrier.” The department did not name the carrier or immediately respond to an overnight request for comment from The Post for further details.

The outages come amid National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which celebrates the work of emergency phone line workers across the United States.

Under normal circumstances, 911 calls are handled by trained public safety dispatchers. Some 240 million calls are made to 911 in the United States each year, according to the National Emergency Number Association. About 80 percent are from wireless devices rather than landlines.

The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that it was “aware of reports of 911-related outages and we are currently investigating.” The Department of Homeland Security has yet to comment on the latest outages.