UPDATE: Landlines are estimated to be repaired by 8 p.m. Thurs. evening, according to the Mitchell County’s Emergency Management Coor. Kris Olson.

————————————————–PREVIOUS STORY———————————————–

UPDATE: 911 outage related to broken water pipe

————————————————–PREVIOUS STORY———————————————–

(ABC 6 News) – Thousands of Iowans may have trouble calling for help Thursday. That’s because there’s a 911 outage for landline phones.

While several counties in north Iowa are impacted, the problem all stems from Des Moines. That’s where a water pipe broke near the Lumen or old CenturyLink building in the state’s capitol. While cell phone users can still call 911, that doesn’t mean everybody can.

“I reached out to long-term care facilities throughout our county to give them a heads up. The administrator came back and said ‘We came across that already. We had to use our personal cellphone in order to make connection with 911,” said Kris Olson, 911 and emergency management coordinator for the Mitchell County Emergency Management.

While these types of situations don’t happen often, it’s something counties like Worth prepare for.

“They can’t get through on any other line, we do have that phone. We only use it for emergencies so we always give that number out and they can get through on that. It’s a special phone line that will override the outage,” Marilyn Stayner, communications supervisor at the Worth County Sheriff’s Office said.

There is no estimate for when phone lines will be back up.

To contact the Worth County Sheriff’s Office during this time, you can call: 641-390-3113.

—–PREVIOUS STORY—–

UPDATE: Phone outages across Iowa impacting MercyOne facilities

(MercyOne) – On Thursday, May 30, 2024, we discovered inbound calls to MercyOne facilities across Iowa, including MercyOne Siouxland, North Iowa, Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Oelwein, Des Moines, West Des Moines, Dubuque, Newton, and Centerville Medical Centers would not go through, and callers received a busy signal. We have been diligently working with phone service providers to resolve this issue. The problem is reportedly due to water issues in a switching center in Des Moines, which could also be impacting cell towers.

Patients needing to schedule an appointment can do so online. Patients needing to cancel an appointment can reach us via the Contact Us form at https://www.mercyone.org. We continue to provide all care. In case of emergency, do not hesitate to go to the emergency room or call 911.

North Iowa: Patient Portal – North Iowa North Iowa, Iowa (IA), MercyOne North Iowa Centerville: Patient Portal Centerville, Iowa (IA), MercyOne Centerville

—–PREVIOUS STORY—–

(ABC 6 News) – There are reported 911 outages in Iowa for landline phones.

According to the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office and Winnebago County Emergency Notification Network Facebook pages, 911 is not working for any landline phone. Each post says that if you need emergency services, you should dial 911 on your cell phone.

At this time, there is no estimated time for the outages being fixed.

This is a developing story.