More Nebraska counties experience 911 outage on Saturday evening

OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — A widespread Windstream 911 outage in southeast Nebraska Saturday evening was restored by Sunday morning.

Here is the explanation from the Southeast Committee:

At approximately 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 2, 9-1-1 Centers (PSAPs) in the Southeast 911 Region, which encompasses most of southeast Nebraska from the I-80 corridor south to the Kansas line and from Hastings to the Missouri River, were informed by Windstream that 9-1-1 service to PSAPs would be going down due to a problem at a Windstream facility.

PSAPs implemented procedures which in many cases involves putting out information via various means to notify the public of alternate means to report an emergency based upon the PSAP’s plans and communication routes that remained viable.

9-1-1 service to all PSAPs in the Southeast Region was restored as of mid-morning on Sunday, September 3rd.

The Southeast 911 Region has partnered with Windstream, as the local telephone carrier, since the inception of the region with the agreement that 9-1-1 service be provided in a redundant and diverse manner to mitigate and minimize 9-1-1 outages. The PSAPs in the Region are working with officials from the Public Service Commission and Windstream to prevent such an outage from occurring in the future

The State of Nebraska Public Service Commission released the following statement:

The Nebraska Public Service Commission has been notified by Windstream that 911 service disrupted by an incident at a Windstream Data Center in Lincoln has been restored.

The outage affected some 911 centers in Southeast Nebraska who through their local/regional network have contracted with Windstream to provide service.

“The Commission works closely with the local 911 centers,” said Director David Sankey, State 911 Department. “Any investigation will look into what led to this disruption in 911 service and will focus on available backup systems and identifying solutions moving forward to mitigate future issues.”

Saturday night (9/2), the Commission indicated 911 centers in a number of counties in Southeast Nebraska may have been impacted by the disruption in service.

Information provided by Windstream indicates that around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, they made notification of a disruption in service due to a fire at their Lincoln facility.

According to Windstream 911 service in four counties, Adams, Gage, Otoe, and Saunders County was down. Other counties in the Southeast region may have experienced some disruptions in service due to the incident.

Windstream technicians worked through the night and restored service to those impacted early Sunday morning.

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