Outages and disruptions on emergency 911 call lines were reported across multiple states on Wednesday.
The problems began late on Wednesday evening across all of South Dakota and in parts of Nebraska, Nevada and Texas.
The South Dakota Department of Public Safety, Las Vegas Police, Nebraska's Douglas County and the city of Del Rio in Texas all reported issues for those attempting to contact police, fire and ambulance services.
Officials said that services have now been restored in some of these areas, but no cause of the outages has yet been identified.
Context
In recent years, 911 systems have been subject to cyber attacks, which in 2017 affected more than a dozen states. Newsweek contacted the U.S. Office of Emergency Medical Services for comment via email outside of normal working hours.
Anyone attempting to contact emergency services who can't get through has been urged to contact non-emergency numbers for their local department. Residents in affected areas shouldn't call 911 as a test to see if the line is working if they don't require emergency assistance.
What We Know
South Dakota is the only state to have experienced a statewide outage, according to a report by Reuters. All of the other outages were reported in local areas of Nebraska, Nevada and Texas.
The following areas have been affected, as per reports from local officials:
- All of South Dakota
- Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada
- Dundy, Kearney, Howard, Fremont and Douglas counties, Nebraska
- Del Rio and Kilgore cities, Texas
In Las Vegas, service has now been restored, according to the city's Metropolitan Police Department. "All of the individuals who called during the outage have been called back and provided assistance," the force said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, at 9:04 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
In Clark County, southern Nevada, officials confirmed the outage via a post on X. Service has also now been restored in this area.
UPDATE: @lvmpd_dispatch 9-1-1 phone service has been restored. All of the individuals who called during the outage have been called back and provided assistance.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) April 18, 2024
Non-emergency calls are also working.
As always, please do not call 9-1-1 unless you have an emergency. pic.twitter.com/xPWxJrINSJ
The South Dakota Department of Public Safety confirmed an outage affecting the entire state at around 10 p.m. on Wednesday. The state's highway patrol confirmed at 11:26 p.m. that service had been restored, writing on X: "Our emergency system is fully operational and ready to respond promptly to any situation."
According to a report by The New York Times, several parts of Nebraska also experienced issues with 911 calls made from landlines and cell phones.
Officials in Dundy County said those attempting to contact emergency services were met with a "busy signal." It later confirmed that phone lines were open and working as normal in a post on Facebook.
Texans were also subject to the 911 outage. Near the U.S.-Mexico border, Del Rio Police Department posted on Facebook: "We are aware of an outage with a major cellular carrier affecting the ability to reach 911. This issue is with the carrier and not the City of Del Rio systems. Our emergency services remain operational." In the far east of Texas, outages were also reported by Kilgore Police Department.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aliss Higham is a Newsweek reporter based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her focus is reporting on issues across the U.S., including ... Read more
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