911 service back in Benton and Franklin counties
Tri-Citians can call 911 again.
About 15 hours after 911 dispatch centers across the state lost service, state officials are reporting it should be working again.
Southeast Communications Center officials tested the service and it is working, Manager Kim Lettrick said. The dispatch center serves police and fire agencies across Benton and Franklin counties.
911 centers across the state have been struggling after a CenturyLink outage knocked out services nationwide on Thursday.
There is still no word on what caused the outage or how it affected services across the country. Though it may have been tied to widespread problems with phone and internet service that affected people across the Northwest and in other states.
The Federal Communications Commission officials announced they are launching an investigation.
According to CenturyLink’s Twitter feed, crews are making progress in fixing the problem, and finished restoring the service to emergency centers. The company is reporting still having problems with its other services.
Dispatchers first noticed problems around 8:30 p.m. Thursday when 911 calls stopped, Lettrick said. After testing it, they learned people were only getting a busy signal when they dialed 911..
The center has plans in place that make technical problems invisible to the general public, but they weren’t able to implement them because of the severity of the issue, Lettrick said.
The local dispatch center worked with centers across the state through the night to monitor the problem.
Everyone in an emergency situation appears to have been able to get help, she said.
They got the word out through Benton County Emergency Services’ CodeRED system.
The alert system sends a message about emergencies to land line phones. People also can sign up for cellphone messages from the system by going to www.bces.wa.gov and clicking on the CodeRED logo.
Police and fire departments also took to social media to spread the word as well.
If you still have problems reaching 911 in Benton or Franklin counties, you can call the non-emergency dispatch number at 509-628-0333.
This story was originally published December 28, 2018 at 9:09 AM.