An equipment breakdown blacked out emergency services in Washington, D.C., Saturday night, leaving residents unable to dial 911.
The outage lasted for 90 minutes from 11:30 p.m. to 1:15 a.m. EST, after power sources to the 911 call center all went dead. Two phone lines were established to contact either the Metropolitan Police Department or D.C. Fire and EMS, however officials said they only received 40 calls on both lines during the outage. Officials said over the time span of the outage, the department normally receives between 300 and 350 911 calls, reports The Washington Post.
The police do not have an accurate count of how many emergency calls were missed while 911 services were down, and it is likely callers experienced delays after officials restored power. Mayor Muriel Bowser encouraged people on Twitter at 2 a.m., after officials restored service, to remain on the line so they would stay in the queue for service.