Statewide 911 Outage Hits Washington County

A statewide 911 outage is affecting services in the area.  The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency sent  out an emergency phone alert shortly after three-thirty, reporting a 911 outage that disrupting systems across the state, including here in Washington County.  Because of the outage, normal 911 calls may not go through and our local 911 officials say that if you have an emergency, until further notice, call their non-emergency landline at 724-229-4600.  They also encourage you to visit their Facebook page at:  washington county public safety for further updates. The public is told to follow instructions from their local 911 centers or public safety agencies. The City of Washington’s Police Department is asking that citizens do not call 911 to test their phones, as it is being overwhelmed currently. Only contact 911 if there is an emergency, and no one should call 911 and then hang up to test if it is working. Officials say this would be considered a “hang-up call” and would lead to an investigation. CBS News Philadelphia reports that the problem lies with an IT issue with a third party company.