UPDATE: Human error caused the loss of South Dakota’s 911 services

April 19, 2024

Workers installing a light pole in Missouri cut into a fiber line, knocking out 911 service for emergency agencies in Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota.

The mistake was reported Thursday by the company that operates the fiber line.

The line was damaged Wednesday in Kansas City, Missouri. While it didn’t impact Kansas City, the damage resulted in the loss of 911 service in three states.

Problems with 911 calls in a Texas city along the U.S. border with Mexico were unrelated, but the widespread outage created concerns about what was causing the problems.

South Dakota’s 911 service was down for about three hours Wednesday night, but text-to-911 services were not impacted.