9-1-1 service restored throughout the Coachella Valley and eastern Riverside County

The ability to call 9-1-1 was restored across the Coachella Valley and eastern Riverside County on Thursday afternoon, after all or part of the system had been down for about 24 hours, multiple law enforcement agencies confirmed.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and various city police departments began reporting that 9-1-1 service had gone down throughout the eastern half of the county. A few hours later, a public safety alert was sent to cellphones throughout the county stating that service was down from Cabazon to Blythe. While lines were down, those experiencing emergencies were advised to call alternative phone numbers to reach dispatchers.

But at around 4:20 p.m. Thursday, Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez issued a statement confirming that service had been "fully restored throughout the county for all residents and all cell phone carriers." Earlier in the day, multiple agencies reported that service had been stored for all cell phone carriers except AT&T.

All the major agencies also have also confirmed that service had been restored by Thursday afternoon.

Perez also said that there are active investigations into how the interruptions occurred and can be prevented in the future taking place.

The 9-1-1 outage is the second one the Coachella Valley has seen in recent months. 9-1-1 service also went down throughout the valley in August as Tropical Storm Hilary bore down on the valley. Palm Springs Mayor Grace Garner said in a speech last month that the outage had been caused by a train derailment during the storm.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 9-1-1 service restored in Coachella Valley