911 service faltered in several Washington counties. Here is the latest on what happened
Multiple counties across Washington state experienced a disruption in calling 911 on Thursday afternoon, according to state emergency officials.
The Washington State Department of Emergency Management posted on Twitter shortly before 4:30 p.m. Dec. 9 that Clallam, Jefferson, Kitsap, Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, King, Thurston and Pierce counties were all experiencing outages with their 911 services.
Texting services to 911 may still have been working, the state emergency services department said.
The King County Sheriff’s Office reported on Twitter that shortly before 4:45 p.m. on Thursday its 911 center was operating normally and that the recent interruption was fixed.
Around 5 p.m., state emergency officials said on Twitter that most 911 services had been restored across the state. The state emergency management department said the incident will be investigated by Washington’s 911 office in coordination with local counties.
Emergency officials told people not to test 911, and to instead find their alternative emergency phone numbers for their counties.
To reach Washington State Patrol for any 911-related calls, which would be for incidents on freeways and state routes, people can call 360-654-1204.
These are the other alternate numbers to call:
Bellingham Fire, 360-676-6811.
JBLM, 253-912-4442.
King County Sheriff, 206-296-3311.
Pierce County 911, 253-798-4722.
Seattle Police, 206-583-2111 or 206-625-5011.
Skagit County Dispatch, 360-428-3211 or 360-336-3131.
Snohomish (SnoCom), 425-407-3970.
Thurston County, 360-704-2740.
Whatcom County, 360-676-6911/6711.
“We recommend you find your non-emergency phone number and stick it in your cell phone,” the tweet from state emergency management said.
This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 5:03 PM with the headline "911 service faltered in several Washington counties. Here is the latest on what happened."
