'Just Keep Trying:' What To Do When Cellphone Outage Impacts Reaching 911

The national cellphone outage on Thursday left many in the metro struggling to reach 911.

The hours-long outage impacted the place where seconds count. “It was kind of sporadic at best as far as the calls we were getting in,” says Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Aaron Brilbeck.

The Sheriff's Office sent an alert through social media early Thursday morning; as did the Oklahoma City Fire Department, Oklahoma City Police, and The State Emergency Operations.

 What we found is that if people would call - and once they connected, would hold for about 30 seconds - our operators could connect with them,” says Brilbeck.

Related: Nationwide Cell Phone Outage Causes Issues With 911 Dispatch Center, Use Land Line

A question seemingly asked everywhere - What caused it? Brilbeck says they don’t have an answer.

That question is also followed by another. Could it happen again? “I wouldn’t say that we’re worried about it,” says Brilbeck. “It hasn’t really happened in the past.”

If it does happen again, emergency responders recommend connecting to Wi-Fi to make a call if needed. They also recommend finding a friend or switching to a landline.

The final option is to wait. Just keep trying over and over again,” says Brilbeck. “Which I know is not a good solution especially when seconds count you don’t want to be spending minutes trying to call 911, but if that is the option in the circumstances unfortunately that’s what you’ve got to do.”

While it’s not a word that typically goes with emergency, the sheriff’s office asks you to try one more thing if it happens again. “We appreciate the patience.”