Strange Outages And Glitches Across America!

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Major 911 outages in 4 states leave millions without a way to contact local authorities
Law enforcement agencies across four states were left scrambling following reports of major 911 outages that saw millions unable to contact authorities late Wednesday.Show more

Many of the outages — reported in Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota and Texas — were restored by the late evening, but the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday said its investigation is just getting started.

"When you call 911 in an emergency, it is vital that 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," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said.

So far, there’s no indication that the outages were caused by a cyberattack or other malicious act, law enforcement officials told NBC News on Thursday.

The outages appear to be related to Lumen Technologies, a spokesperson for the communications and telecom company said.

On Wednesday, some customers in Nevada, South Dakota and Nebraska "experienced an outage" when a third-party company, unrelated to Lumen, "physically cut our fiber" while "installing a light pole," company spokesperson Mark Molzen said.

"We restored all services in approximately two and a half hours," he said. Lumen doesn't provide 911 services in Texas, Molzen added.

"Our techs identified the issue and worked hard to fix it as quickly as possible," he said. "We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding."
Wednesday's outage comes on the heels of a widespread AT&T outage in February that left thousands without service across multiple states, and impacted some calls to 911 for hours, which the carrier said was likely caused by a process error — not a cyberattack.

Local law enforcement agencies on Wednesday reported a statewide outage in South Dakota shortly before 7 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET). Rapid City Police offered locals alternative phone numbers to call for first responders, and service was restored about two hours later.

The South Dakota Department of Public Safety said Wednesday evening that “texting to 9-1-1 is operating in most locations” as an option to contact authorities.

Sioux Falls Fire Assistant Chief Mike Gramlick said in a news conference Thursday the outage was confirmed at 7:59 p.m. local time and was restored to full capacity by 10:38 p.m.

“During the duration of the outage, Metro Communications received 112 calls for service” that were able to come through via open line numbers and by texting 911, he said.

Gramlick added: “For reference, typically during the same time period for the day and the week, Metro Communications takes 114 calls. To our knowledge, we have never experienced an outage of this magnitude or duration.”

The city also issued a wireless emergency alert to notify the public about the 911 system outage.