Washington officials said Friday that it appeared 911 capabilities had been restored throughout the state after a disruption that started Thursday. Telecommunications company CenturyLink tweeted Friday that it had been dealing with a “network event” and “all customer service” had been restored.
A number of police and fire agencies said earlier that callers dialing 911 received a fast busy signal, CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV reports.
The problem was connected to CenturyLink, which contracts with the state to provide 911 services in the state. CenturyLink has contracts with at least five other states. Customers from New York to California reported outages.
Parts of Missouri, Idaho and Arizona also experienced 911 outages. The Boston Police Department said early Friday that there had been outages, but tweeted by 10:30 a.m. that the outages had been resolved. In Idaho, internet problems caused the temporary shutdown of phone services at the Idaho Department of Correction and the state’s Department of Education, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai said Friday that the agency will be investigating the outage. Pai called the outage “particularly troubling” in a statement.
One woman told KIRO-TV she was in Tukwila, Washington, with a friend when they heard more than a dozen shots fired and tried to call 911 for help.
“Once they (the gunfire) stopped and we knew we were both OK, I called 911, and that’s when we were getting a busy signal,” the woman, Kati, told KIRO-TV. She said she didn’t get the alert that buzzed on cellphones across the state until about an hour and a half later.
“That would be terrifying, to be in a situation where you needed emergency medical assistance and you couldn’t get through and you didn’t know why. Because that delay was really long,” Kati said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
