911 Knocked Out Across PA Due To Verizon Outage: Officials

More than a dozen Pennsylvania counties experienced loss of access to 911 services due to a Verizon outage on Thursday and Friday, Sept. 7 and 8, state officials say.

Monroe County Emergency Management Office
Photo Credit: *Facebook/Monroe County Office of Emergency Management*

Mac Bullock

09/08/2023 4:25 p.m.

The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency said around 6 p.m. Thursday that 16 different counties had their service interrupted as a result of the outage, including:

Bradford
Carbon
Columbia
Clinton
Lackawanna
Luzerne
Lycoming
Montour
Pike
Schuylkill
Snyder
Sullivan
Susquehanna
Tioga
Wayne
Wyoming

Also affected were Monroe and Schuylkill counties, their emergency management services confirmed in separate statements.

By 12:30 p.m. Friday, service had been restored, officials said.

Verizon has since issued a statement on the outages:

During last night's storms, a tree fell on power lines causing extensive damage to fiber optic cables carrying landline traffic. This caused a disruption to landline service for some customers in northeastern Pennsylvania. Once the fire was extinguished, our engineers worked to repair the fiber. Service has been fully restored.

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