911 outage affects Mattawa
A few dozen customers were impacted by an outage that prevented Verizon customers from using 911 services in Mattawa Wednesday evening.
COURTESY PHOTO/LISA FOTIOS
MATTAWA - A 911 outage Wednesday night potentially impacted 38 customers in the Mattawa area was resolved early Thursday morning.
The outage, as reported through Nixle, affected Verizon wireless customers.
D.T. Donaldson, director of the MACC Dispatch, said they were notified of the outage about 10 p.m. Wednesday night and that it was resolved about 4 a.m.
Customers that were affected were asked to call MACC’s non-emergency phone number if they could not get through using 911.
Donaldson explained that 911 and MACC Dispatch are separate systems, which is why those that could not get through to 911 could still get in contact with MACC through their direct line.
Although MACC does dispatch for both non-emergency and 911 calls, non-emergency line calls are deprioritized so 911 is still recommended for the public to call in emergencies.
Donaldson said he highly recommends signing up for Nixle because it is how MACC Dispatch generally puts out important information to the public.
To subscribe to get emergency notifications through Nixle, text GCSHERIFF to 888777 and/or to receive notifications via email, complete the subscription form at https://bit.ly/3cg8To9.
MACC Dispatch’s non-emergency line is 509-762-1160.
Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.