Boone County Joint Communications experienced a phone line issue early Monday morning, which has been repaired after reports of vandalism.
The outage was widespread and, according to a news release from the Boone County Office of Emergency Management, limited callers’ direct access to local hospitals, public safety and government agencies.
The outage caused disruptions to the county’s 911 and 311 phone lines.
A 3 p.m. Boone County Office of Emergency news release said that “Lumen has identified and repaired the issue. Preliminary information indicates the disruption may have been caused by vandalism affecting fiber infrastructure.”
The University of Missouri and its police department were also impacted.
An IT report from Mizzou said that the cause of the issue was suspected to be a cut in its fiber-optic line.
According to a Public Safety Alert from the MU Police Department, anyone trying to contact the department during the outage was encouraged to call 573-882-7201 and press 4 to reach a dispatcher.
As of 2:27 p.m., all phone services were restored, according to a university IT report.
“Campus and hospital phone services have been restored and are now working normally,” the report said. “We have not yet received the all clear from the vendor and will continue to monitor services.”
The damage was identified as of 10:27 a.m., when technicians were on-site to address the issue.
Lumen Technologies, formerly CenturyLink, which has a data center in Columbia, originally notified Boone County Joint Communications of the issue at 3:12 a.m. on Monday. The Boone County Office of Emergency Management then issued an emergency alert at 4:32 a.m.
The Joint Communications public safety alert said that 311 was not working and that callers should dial 911 for emergencies. The message also recommended calling twice if needed.
As of Monday afternoon, Boone County Joint Communications Director Christie Davis said that there were not any reported impacts on 911 or emergency responses. She said that nonemergency responses to public safety services were affected, as 311 calls were not deliverable to the communications center during the incident.
Boone County Joint Communications used available call-tracking resources to help identify inbound 911 calls that otherwise may not have connected to the communications center during the outage, according to a news release. “Employees monitored those calls and made outbound calls to individuals when needed,” the release said.
“There were less than a dozen calls recognized by BCJC employees that did not reach the communications center,” Davis said.
Davis clarified that emergency telecommunicators contacted these individuals to verify if an emergency existed and said that the majority of the calls were accidental since callers intentionally disconnected prior to reaching the phone system.
