911 service for all of South Dakota and parts of Nebraska, Nevada, and Texas – including Dawes County – was out for about 2 hours last night, but officials have not released a cause or said if all the outages were related.
Dawes County Communications at the Chadron Police Dispatch Center sent out a CodeRed alert about 8:30 saying the 911 system was down in most of Nebraska and offering alternatives for emergency calls, including using a cell phone.
The South Dakota Dept of Public Safety issued a release a little after 10:00 saying that 911 service had been restored statewide, but without giving a cause for the problem.
The federal Department of Homeland Security has warned of increased risks of cyber attacks on 911 services as they have migrated to digital systems based on Internet Protocol standards, but there’s no word if that’s suspected this time.