An incident at Lumen Technologies in Des Moines has resulted in a significant disruption of 911, phone, and internet services in Iowa on Thursday.
Lumen addressed the issue at their company building located at 10th St. and High St. In a statement provided to WHO 13 at approximately 10:35 a.m., Lumen acknowledged the issue.
“Our techs are working hard to fix a service disruption, caused by a water pipe break, which is affecting landline 911, phone, and Internet service for some customers in Central and Eastern Iowa. Restoring impacted services is our top priority. We’ll provide regular updates, and we appreciate your patience and understanding.” Mark Molzen , Lumen Global Issues Director
On Thursday, the Des Moines Police Department experienced an issue with their administrative phones, causing them to malfunction. As a result, landline 911 calls were unable to connect. However, dispatchers were still able to receive emergency calls made from cell phones.
UnityPoint and MercyOne have also shared details about problems encountered with their phone systems as a result of the Lumen outage.
The outage has impacted numerous statewide agencies, according to the Polk County Emergency Management Agency. Lumen is currently mobilizing additional generators to restore their systems, although the exact timeframe for service restoration remains unknown.
As new information becomes available, WHO 13 will continue to update this developing story.