911 outage discussed at Seattle City Council meeting



SEATTLE -- On Wednesday, Seattle City Council members heard from emergency management staff on last month's 911 outage.

The outage linked to CenturyLink call centers prevented some people from reaching emergency services for more than 12 hours. Officials say it was part of a national outage, and its exact cause is still being looked into.

The goal of Wednesday's meeting was to see if there are ways the city can better respond to this type of situation, including messaging to the public. However, Seattle emergency management officials told the council they were able to get out the necessary alerts at about the same time they went out at the county level.

Officials say King County 911 call centers are also working to make improvements.