Texas’ 911 system down for hours after system glitch

Calls were immediately rerouted to neighboring departments and extra officers were placed on streets for residents to directly report incidents

December 17, 2013 01:39 AM

Austin American-Statesman

AUSTIN, Texas — The 911 service has been restored following an hourslong outage Monday.

The city of Austin’s office of homeland security and emergency management announced Monday afternoon that people calling 911 in Austin and Travis County will likely experience longer wait times because of a system disruption.

The city is asking residents to only use 911 for “a true emergency,” according to a statement the homeland security office issued. “For all other issues (property crimes, minor traffic accidents, nuisance complaints, etc.), please call 311.”

The Round Rock Police Department is answering 911 calls placed in Austin, according to the Austin Police Department. Fire and EMS calls are being rerouted to Williamson County’s communication center, said Mayor Lee Leffingwell. Calls from Travis County outside Austin are being routed to Pflugerville, he said.

Extra call-takers have been sent to those centers.

Lisa Block, a spokeswoman with Travis County, said the county doesn’t know how long callers are having to wait on average, but she said they should stay on the line rather than hanging up and calling back.

Police said that the outage affected the primary and backup systems. As of 4:50 p.m., the entire system has undergone a reboot and officials are testing it. They did not say what caused the outage or when the system will be back up.

Extra officers have been placed around the city including at neighborhood fire stations so that residents can report incidents there.

Leffingwell said it was his understanding that an outage like the one Monday has not happened in the city’s history.