On April 17, 2024, widespread 911 outages were reported in the states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Texas, and Nevada. The outages affected both landlines and mobile phones in various areas. In Las Vegas and parts of South Dakota, service was restored by around 9 p.m., but the cause of the outage remained unclear.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported that calls to 911 on landlines and mobile phones were not connecting for about two hours before service was restored. During this time, dispatchers could see attempts to make calls from mobile phones and would call residents back. The Nevada State Police also reported outages in southern Nevada.
In Nebraska, the local police departments of Dundy, Kearney, and Howard reported that service had been restored by 12:30 a.m., but all three said that landlines could still call through for non-emergency calls. The South Dakota Department of Public Safety announced an interruption throughout the state and later said that service had been restored for the South Dakota 911 system.
The police department of Del Rio, Texas, reported that customers of one cellular provider were having issues calling 911. A spokeswoman said that the issue there was only affecting T-mobile customers and that service had not yet been restored to those customers at 1:15 a.m.
The outages also affected Sioux Falls and Rapid City in South Dakota, where officials provided alternate numbers before the line returned. The city of Sioux Falls said residents could again call or text 911 in case of emergencies.
There were no reports on the cause of the outage, but it is worth noting that a widespread AT&T outage temporarily cut off connections for users across the United States for many hours in February, leaving FirstNet, the emergency communications network, out of service. Police forces like the New York Police Department were unable to make calls or send emails.
It's important to note that during emergencies, it's crucial to have multiple ways of contacting emergency services. In case of a 911 outage, residents can try texting 911 or using alternative numbers provided by their local authorities.
