Northwest Iowa — Sheriff’s offices and Public Safety Answer Points across northwest Iowa were reporting a 911 outage on Thursday, but it appears things are nearly back to normal.
The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office reported that landline 911 calls were not going through as of the 2 p.m. hour on Thursday. They said that their county and several others were experiencing a broad range 911 outage for people trying to call 911 from basically landlines, but also some cell providers.
Sources tell us it was caused by a cut fiber optic line and that the outage affected Lumen 911 services.
They say that for any future outages, if you can’t get through or get a busy signal, call the non-emergency line for the sheriff’s office. In Sioux County, that’s 712-737-3307. Other authorities say if you can’t get through on one kind of phone, try another kind. For instance, if you can’t get 911 on your landline, try your cell phone. You can also text to 911 in all 99 counties in Iowa.
Other counties’ non-emergency numbers (to call if 911 is out):
Lyon 712-472-8300
O’Brien 712-957-3415
Osceola 712-754-2556
