CenturyLink outage leads to mistaken Portland 911 alert

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A county in southwest Washington state accidentally sent an emergency text message to residents of nearby Portland after their 911 system was compromised by the CenturyLink outage.

The 911 system in Oregon was not impacted by the outage but the alert sent by Washington’s Clark County around 11:30 p.m. Thursday said 911 was down and provided an alternate local number to call.

The Clark County 911 Center later acknowledged the accidental text message in a Twitter post early Friday.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the text message went to mobile phones in the entire Portland metro area, including Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington and Columbia counties.

Authorities say 911 services are back up in the Seattle area after the CenturyLink outage caused disruptions that began Thursday.

Meanwhile, in Washington state, King County said Friday morning that progress had been made in restoring 911 services across the Seattle metro area.

But county officials also warned that there may still be lingering, intermittent connection issues.

They urged people not to make test calls and to take note of the direct phone numbers available to reach emergency services in case they can’t get through dialing 911.

CenturyLink said on Twitter that people can still use their cell phones to reach 911 and that their technicians are working to restore service.

The company has been scrambling to troubleshoot the issues that have left customers across the country without internet service.