CT's 911 System Operating As Questions Abound: UPDATE

CONNECTICUT — Police and emergency departments throughout Connecticut were scrambling Tuesday afternoon as reports of "911" service outages are causing mayhem for responders.

Slowly, some towns were returning to normal on Tuesday afternoon, and, later at 3:48 p.m., state authorities confirmed all 911 systems were back and operating.

Now comes the next question. What happened?

The Connecticut Senate Republican Caucus Wednesday issued a statement regarding Tuesday’s statewide 911 issues, calling for an investigation in what happened.

“Questions must be answered. How - and why - did this happen? What caused it? And who is accountable?" said Senate Republicans.

"It is vital that we get a concrete answer as to the cause. AT&T says they were ‘informed of a technical problem on another provider's network’ and that problem ‘may’ have been a reason for what happened. ‘May’ cannot be the accepted answer, and we will press those responsible to ensure that this does not happen again.”

The Connecticut Emergency Management & Homeland Security Department was issuing alerts about the situation all day, saying the "state of CT 9-1-1 system is currently experiencing issues."

At about 3:15 p.m., the state's emergency management department confirmed towns were coming back online again.

"Again, please do not call 9-1-1 unless there is an emergency. We will report back when services have been fully restored," wrote the department in an update on "X."

One problem, state officials said earlier, was current 911 providers are being inundated with non-emergency calls/texts.

"Please, do not test call/text capabilities unless there is an emergency," wrote Connecticut's emergency department via "X."

If anyone had an emergency and could not call 911, authorities said they should text "9-1-1."

Several towns and police departments were issuing alerts through local social media sites, including Hartford, West Hartford, Farmington, Canton, and many others in the state.

Later in the afternoon, West Hartford, Hartford, and Farmington were among the municipalities reporting service was back to normal.

In New Haven, Mayor Justin Elicker told residents via the New Haven Alerts emergency notification system and on social media platforms to call and utilize the Yale emergency call line at 203-432-4400 for life-threatening emergencies.

All calls will then be received, routed, and responded to accordingly, he said earlier.

Meanwhile, Eversource Energy urged those reporting natural gas leaks to call 877-944-5325 and to move to a safe place. Eversource said those reporting downed wires or other power emergencies should call 800-286-2000.

In both cases, Eversource urged folks to move to safe places before calling.