HILLSBORO -- Washington County's 9-1-1 center went down for at least 31/2 hours early Saturday, and callers heard only a fast busy signal. It was the agency's third serious failure in four months.

An error at Verizon Northwest's central Beaverton switching office caused the disruption, which was discovered at 2:30 a.m. The county Consolidated Communications Agency was alerted to the problem by a person who mentioned the busy signal when he called the non-emergency line to complain about a loud party, said Larry Hatch, agency assistant director.

Parts of the system were back on line by 4:45 a.m., and all emergency lines were operating at 6 a.m. Calls made with wireless phones were not affected.

Bob Wayt, Verizon spokesman, said the disruption started during a routine software upgrade, but he did not know its specific cause or how many people tried to call 9-1-1 during the failure. Wayt said the disruption also affected Yamhill County for the same period.

During the summer the agency suffered two rare internal failures in less than two weeks; they caused similar disruptions for about 20 minutes. And in April, a Verizon failure shut down 9-1-1 lines for about an hour.

If the 9-1-1 line is not working, Hatch recommended callers try the agency's non-emergency number at 503-629-0111 or call a local hospital, police station or fire department.

The Oregonian

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