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CenturyLink outage leads to accidental 911 alert in Oregon

Published  December 28, 2018 11:36am PST
Associated Press

CenturyLink outage impacting western Washington 911 services

CenturyLink outage impacting western Washington 911 services



PORTLAND, Ore. -- A county in southwest Washington state accidentally sent an emergency text message to residents of nearby Portland, Oregon after their 911 system was compromised by the CenturyLink outage.

The 911 system in Oregon was not impacted by the outage but the alert sent by Washington's Clark County around 11:30 p.m. Thursday said 911 was down and provided an alternate local number to call.

The Clark County 911 Center later acknowledged the accidental text message in a Twitter post early Friday.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that the text message went to mobile phones in the entire Portland metro area, including Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington and Columbia counties.