Residents raise concerns about Monday night’s 911 outage in Delaware

DELAWARE – For the second time in nearly a week, Delawareans got a message Monday night saying there was disruption preventing them from being able to call 911 for several hours.

“It was really alarming because just in case at that moment if you need to use it then you couldn’t use it,” said Gertha Jean, a Georgetown resident.

With the 911 call center disruption, the message told residents instead to text 911 for emergencies. The same thing happened on September 28th.

Kent County Director of Public Safety Chief Colin Faulkner says he believes the most recent outage is a result of lines not working.

“Just refer to it as basically the telephone lines went down, telephone and day line,” said Faulkner.

The Seaford Police Department is raising concerns about the outage. They say if you’re aren’t able to call 911 in a life or death situation seconds matter.

“When you’re being met with a busy signal and now you have to hang up, try to find the seven-digit number to call, and hopefully you’re quickly able to speak with somebody,” said Master Corporal Eric Chambers at the Seaford Police Department.

Residents say although they’re able to text 911 if someone’s attacking you it’s easier to just call.

“It’s hard to say ‘oh, I need help you know, I fell, or somebody is attacking me and put it in a text,” said Jean, “It’s so much easier just to relay that information just press the button 911 and then you can get in contact with them easily.”

Overall police say if an outage does happen again and you need help there are several steps you can take. “Memorize your local number that you need to call in case 911 ever goes down, if you’re using a cell phone, you can text 911 and give them an address of where you’re at or what’s happening,” said Chambers.

Some people who spoke to 47ABC say there needs to be a second message letting people know that 911 services are restored in the future. Click here for previous coverage on the most recent 911 outage.