In four states, the 911 system, which people rely on for urgent help, has crashed. Millions are left without a way to reach the police or fire department in an emergency. It’s like having the rug pulled out from under you when you need it most. Let’s dig deeper into what’s happening and why it matters so much.
911 Blackouts Hit Four States, Leaving Locals Unable To Reach Help
Following reports of significant 911 delays that prevented millions of people from contacting police late on Wednesday, law enforcement agencies in four states were left in a state of confusion.
The Federal Communications Commission stated on Thursday that its probe is only getting started, despite the fact that many of the disruptions, which were reported in Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, and Texas, were restored by late evening.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, “When you call 911 in an emergency, it is vital that the call goes through. The FCC has already begun investigating the 911 multi-state outages that occurred last night to get to the bottom of the cause and impact.”
According to law enforcement authorities on Thursday, there is currently no proof that a cyberattack or other malevolent act was the reason for the outages.
According to a spokesman for the telecom and communications company, Lumen Technologies appears to be involved in the disruptions.
When a third-party company unaffiliated with Lumen “physically cut our fiber” while “installing a light pole,” some customers in Nevada, South Dakota, and Nebraska “experienced an outage” on Wednesday, according to company spokesperson Mark Molzen.
He said, “We restored all services in approximately two and a half hours. Lumen doesn’t provide 911 services in Texas.”
“Our techs identified the issue and worked hard to fix it as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding,” he said further.
The Honolulu Police Department announced on social media on Thursday that the 911 system was down. A post made twenty minutes later claimed the system was back up and running. The police department’s stated outage’s cause is unknown.
Following a large AT&T outage in February that affected thousands of people in several states and disrupted some 911 calls for hours, the carrier stated that the outage on Wednesday was most likely the result of a process error rather than a cyberattack.
The South Dakota Department of Public Safety announced on Wednesday night that most of the time, “texting to 9-1-1 is operating” as a way to get in touch with the police. In addition, the city alerted the public to the 911 system failure via a wireless alert.
The Dept of Public Safety is aware of a 911 service interruption throughout the state. Texting to 9-1-1 is operating in most locations. If these methods are not working in your location, citizens can still reach their local police and county sheriff offices – – – (see comments) pic.twitter.com/BcKsIvHtMF
— South Dakota Department of Public Safety (@SDPublicSafety) April 18, 2024
Director of Douglas County 911 Kathy Allen stated that Lumen Technologies informed her that “there was a fiber cut, but they did not disclose the location of the damage.”According to Allen, the agency’s services had been “completely restored” by 4 a.m. on Thursday.
Although Kramer pointed out that the dispatch center has little control over the process, telecommunications companies have the freedom to decide how to route emergency calls to 911 control centers.
Additionally, Lumen notified Douglas County that the outage that affected South Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, and Texas was unrelated to the problems in Texas.
At nearly seven o’clock local time (10 o’clock ET), the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police in Nevada declared, “There is a 911 outage impacting your ability to contact us right now.” Locals were advised to use their mobile devices to dial 911 since landlines “are NOT working at the moment.”
On Wednesday night, Sarpy County 911 in Nebraska stated on X that “some wireless carriers are not able to reach 911.” Three hours or so later, the issue was resolved.
INFORMATION at 22:17 Some wireless carriers are not able to reach 911, if you can not reach 911, dial 402-593-4111 for Sarpy County 911.
— Sarpy County 911 (@SarpyCounty911) April 18, 2024
On social media on Wednesday night, the Texas Department of Del Rio Police stated that the problem “was with the carrier and not the City of Del Rio systems.”
Landlines could still contact 911, according to the Chase County Sheriff’s Office, but all cellular carriers—aside from T-Mobile—were reporting that “911 is down across the State of Nebraska.”
Former Chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau from 2013 to 2017, Retired Rear Adm. David Simpson, stated that the 911 system in place today is not a national one.
He stated, “The decisions made for equipment and budget vary from state to state. There are over 6,000 jurisdictions for 911.”
Simpson claimed that the current system is “missing resilient backups” that might stop an outage on numerous fronts, such as more cables for path diversity, various telecommunications carriers, upgraded equipment, and multiple routers.
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