Emergency service numbers are fixed

Multiple cities unable to reach 9-1-1 directly

COLUMBIA BASIN — Citizens calling 9-1-1 experienced difficulties getting through the system to report an emergency Monday.

The problem was fixed at about 2:30 a.m. this morning, Grant County Emergency Management Director Sam Lorenz said.

The issue arose when two major cuts were made into a telephone fiber cable yesterday, 9-1-1 Director Mary Allen said. It happened somewhere on a city right-of-way between Warden and Moses Lake caused by a piece of farm equipment, she said.

Emergency services were affected in Grant County, Douglas County, Okanogan County and Lind, Lorenz said.

When people were calling to report an emergency they were hearing a busy message or a beeping, Allen said.

Qwest Communications rerouted the calls to alternative lines.

Lorenz released a public service announcement to radio stations but was only able to get in contact with two because it was after hours for the stations, he said. He plans to meet with other stations to update phone numbers to get a hold of the stations in case of another emergency after hours.

There were no major incidents during the outage, Allen said. Emergency response time was not affected.

During a disaster, phone lines get tied, Lorenz said. There are multiple ways to report emergencies.

Citizens can refer to the phone book to call the business lines for fire and police protection, he said. During the outage, fire and police were notified citizens were to be rerouted and referred to the business lines so they would be prepared for the calls, he said.

For cities without business lines listed in the phone book including Wilson Creek and George, Lorenz plans to discuss how to handle such incidents in the future for each city.