Missoula’s 9-1-1 emergency communications system failed overnight, and several backup systems were also inoperable.

Missoula County Emergency Services Director Adriane Beck explained what happened.

“At approximately 12:15 a.m. we were notified that all the 9-1-1 lines into our center were inoperable, and further, non were able to be transferred to our redundant systems that we have in place to deal with potential outages,” said Beck. “The outage lasted until about 3:15 a.m. at which time they were able to start rerouting some of those to the back like numbers that we have, and shortly thereafter the 9-1-1 lines came back on.”

Beck said regularly scheduled service by Blackfoot was underway when the outage occurred.

“There was a scheduled maintenance outage with Blackfoot that we were well aware of and had been working with them leading up to the scheduled outage. Nobody through the 9-1-1 lines would be affected by that outage but apparently, they were.”

Beck said there were several calls that came in on a backup number while the regulat 9-1-1 center was down.

“We know of one individual who tried to contact 9-1-1 during the outage,” she said. “We know that because she called in this morning to notify us of that. We do know that during the outage the alternate number that we provided, 728-0911 received 25 calls during that outage time. Of those some were emergent and some were not.”

Beck said officials will continue to investigate the outage.

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