Some cell phone users in Riverside County couldn't reach 911 on Thursday after an outage disrupted emergency call service, prompting officials to scramble for a workaround. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department posted an alternate number for people in the affected area to use if they needed emergency help and their cell phone wouldn't connect to 911.
The outage was first reported as affecting some cellphone users' ability to dial 911, according to NBC Los Angeles. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department announced the problem via a post on X, directing anyone who couldn't get through to 911 to instead call 951-776-1078. ABC7 Los Angeles also reported the alert Thursday morning, noting that some people in Riverside County may be unable to reach 911 using their cell phones.
It remained unclear what exactly caused the disruption or when service would be fully restored, the station's report noted. Details about whether the outage extended beyond Riverside County, or which carriers were affected, were not available Thursday.
Conflicting Reports on Which Number to Call
Adding to the confusion, a notice posted to the La Quinta city website described the outage differently, saying 911 service for cell phones was out on the east side of the valley and telling residents to use an alternate number, (951) 776-1278, for emergencies only. That number differs by a single digit from the 951-776-1078 figure cited in the Sheriff's Department's post relayed by NBC Los Angeles, and it was not clear from available reporting which number, or whether both, were active during Thursday's outage.
This isn't the first time Riverside County cell users have had to fall back on an alternate emergency line. During a 24-hour, 45-minute 911 disruption in November 2023, the Sheriff's Office advised East County residents to call 951-776-1278 for emergencies, according to KESQ. A report of wire and fiber theft near Whitewater, north of Interstate 10, was received at 10:59 p.m. on November 8. The Sheriff's Office announced 911 was fully restored for all residents and cell phone carriers by 3:30 p.m. the following day. During that same 2023 incident, Palm Springs Police reported that landlines, Verizon cell phones and T-Mobile cell phones could still reach 911, while AT&T cell phones could not connect within the city.
A Pattern of Fiber and Network Problems
Riverside County isn't alone in facing these kinds of disruptions. In January, a Frontier Communications fiber cut between Victorville and Adelanto knocked out emergency and non-emergency communications for multiple agencies, including Barstow Police Department dispatch, according to Victor Valley News Group. Barstow residents needing emergency help were temporarily told to call a separate local number while crews worked the problem, and police dispatch confirmed that all phone services were back up by 5:30 p.m. that same day.
For now, Riverside County residents whose cell phones won't connect to 911 are being told to use the alternate number shared by the Sheriff's Department. No timeline for a full fix has been provided, and officials have not said what triggered Thursday's outage.
