Phone outage impacts much of Washington

A phone-service outage impacted several Washington businesses and organizations Tuesday afternoon.

At least five businesses in downtown Washington the Southeast Iowa Union spoke with were without phone service, including Washington State Bank and Federation Bank.

Washington schools and the county offices were without phone service Tuesday as well.

Cara Sorrells, dispatch supervisor for Washington County, said the outage was caused by an issue with Windstream Communications, a voice and network communications provider.

The phone outage was not impacting 911 services, Sorrells said.

Businesses the Southeast Iowa Union spoke with who did not use Windstream communications as their phone provider were not impacted by the outage.

Windstream Communications did not immediately respond to requests for comment.