Wednesday's widespread power outage affected residents' ability to call 911 in parts of Nebraska and Texas, all of South Dakota and Las Vegas, local officials said.
In Las Vegas, 911 calls from landlines and cell phones were out for about two hours, but were restored around 9 p.m. This was announced by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. on social media.
During the power outage, dispatchers observed attempts to make calls from cell phones and called residents back, but all attempted calls were answered, police said.
The power outage also affected southern Nevada, according to Nevada State Police.
Power outages were also reported by local police departments in Dundee, Kearny, and Howard, Nebraska. All three reported on Facebook that service had been restored between midnight and 12:30 a.m.
The Del Rio, Texas, police department announced that a cell phone company's customers are having trouble calling 911. A spokesperson said the issue only affected T-Mobile customers and service had not yet been restored to those customers as of Wednesday.3:00 a.m.
The South Dakota Department of Public Safety said on social media that power outages are affecting residents across the state. In most areas of the state, residents can still text 911 or call their local police or county sheriff's office on non-emergency phone lines, the department said. Around 11 p.m. South Dakota Highway Patrol said. There were reports on social media that service had been restored.
In February, a widespread AT&T outage briefly disrupted connectivity for users across the United States for an extended period of time, leaving its emergency communications network, FirstNet, out of service. Police departments such as the New York City Police Department were unable to make phone calls or send emails.