City recaps response to 911 outage; cause remains unknown

An almost three-hour outage of 911 telephone service Wednesday night was an unprecedented disruption for Metro Communications in Sioux Falls but one the team successfully navigated, city officials said.

“To our knowledge, we have never experienced an outage of this magnitude or duration,” Assistant Fire Chief Mike Gramlick said.

Metro Communications received 112 calls during the window from about 8 p.m. to just after 10:30 p.m., which is nearly identical to what typically would be received on a Wednesday night.

Calls were shifted to a 911 texting service and to an administrative phone line.

“Delivery of these essential public safety services continued throughout the challenge,” Gramlick said.

A cause hasn’t been determined and likely will be released by the state of South Dakota because the outage impacted the entire state emergency response system, he said.

The city issued a wireless emergency alert at 9 p.m., which is part of a continuity-of-service plan developed for these disruptions, city emergency manager Regan Smith said.

“Having these plans in place makes successful responses to incidents like yesterday possible,” he said.

The fast response in Sioux Falls to the outage caught the attention of public safety entities nationwide that were experiencing their own outages, Mayor Paul TenHaken said.

“You guys couldn’t have run this any better,” he said, addressing the city’s emergency response team.