Emergency 911 Service Restored In Washington After Morning Outage

Emergency 911 service has been restored for the state of Washington after an outage affected dispatch centers throughout the state and parts of Oregon.

The lines were restored in Washington and Oregon after separate, but unrelated problems, according to CenturyLink.

The company has not determined a cause for the disrupted service which started around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, according to spokeswoman Kerry Zimmer.

Officials with the Washington State Patrol acknowledge there were 911 calls placed that did not get through.

Sgt. Jason Hicks of WSP said once the outage was apparent, the state’s 911 centers began to talk to one another. Messages went out via social media and other electronic notification regarding the outage and what numbers to call.

But he recognizes that not everyone got the message.

Hicks said moving forward this is an opportunity for emergency centers to look at their response to the outage and see what worked and what didn’t.

“We’re talking multiple 911 centers that are going to have to get together and figure out what’s the best way to handle this if we ever get a failure like this again,” he said.

The time of the incident may have worked in their favor, but Hicks said he remains concerned because it may never be known what 911 calls did not get through during the outage.

In case of continuing issues, there are alternate numbers to call in some areas:

Algona Police 253-852-2121

Auburn Police 253-852-2121

Bellingham Police / Fire 360-676-6911

Black Diamond Police 253-852-2121

Clark County 360-696-4461

Clallam County 360-417-4970

Cowlitz County 360-577-3098

Des Moines Police 253-852-2121

Federal Way Police 253-852-2121

Fife 253-922-6656

Grays Harbor County 360-533-7880

Island County 360-679-9567

JBLM 253-967-3107

Kent Police 253-852-2121

King County Fire Departments (south): 253-852-2121

Lewis County 360-740-1105

Mason County 360-427-7761

City of Pacific Police 253-852-2121

Pacific County (north) 360-875-9397

Pacific County (south) 360-642-9397

Pierce County 253-798-4722

Pierce County WSP 253-538-3240

Pierce County Fire 253-581-3888

Puyallup 253-841-5431

Redmond Fire/medical 425-577-5656

Redmond Police 425-556-2500.

Renton Police 253-852-2121

San Juan County 360-378-4141

Shelton 360-426-4441

Skagit County 360-336-3131 or 360-428-3211

Tacoma 253-627-0151

Thurston County 360-704-2740

Thurston County WSP 253-538-3240

Tukwila Police 253-852-2121

University of Washington Police 206-685-8973

Whatcom County 360-676-6911

There is also a list of the ten-digit emergency and non-emergency numbers through the Washington State Patrol.