State reports ‘interruption’ of 911 on some landlines

DES MOINES — According to public safety officials landlines across the state experienced an interruption of services which affected the ability to reach 911 Thursday afternoon into Friday.

In a news release, the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management advised state residents and business to call or text 911 on their cellphones in the event of an emergency. The news release attributed the problem to “an issue with service provider Lumen Technologies.”

Henry County Sheriff Rich McNamee stated that the initial outage affected a majority of Henry County, but by 4 p.m. Thursday, service was restored to most landlines.

“We are still having some connection issues randomly throughout the area, but we can’t pinpoint why,” McNamee said Thursday.

In an email, Washington County 911 Supervisor Cara Sorrells said the local government had tested phone access in several communities by Thursday afternoon, and determined that Ainsworth and Crawfordsville were impacted by the outage.

“If you try to contact 911 by a landline and cannot complete the call, please dial 911 from your cellular or wireless phone,” she said. “The public is urged to follow your local media or social media sites for updates on the impacted or restored services.”

The Fairfield Police Department said on social media that locals reported the same problems “over portions of Jefferson County.”

The Henry County Sheriff’s Department updated the public via social media that as of 9:42 p.m., Friday, May 31, “it appears this issue has been resolved. If anyone is continuing to have issues with their landline service, they should contact their service provider directly.”

A representative from Lumen Technologies told WHO-13 Thursday morning that the outage mostly impacted Central and Eastern Iowa. The company’s portfolio includes CenturyLink and Quantum Fiber.

The state said responsible parties would “conduct a thorough investigation to understand what happened and why it happened,” but did not offer further details on the cause of outages.

“Our techs are working hard to fix a service disruption, caused by a water pipe break,” Lumen Global Issues Director Mark Molzen told the Des Moines news outlet. “Restoring impacted services is our top priority. We’ll provide regular updates, and we appreciate your patience and understanding.”

According to a representative on the City of Des Moines Facebook page also pointed to a water line leak and stated that they do not suspect any suspicious activity.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com