Updated on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024 at 12 p.m.
Emergency 911 lines in Berkeley County temporarily went down Wednesday morning, leaving residents unable to contact county emergency services.
The first alert was issued at 11:10 a.m. via Berkeley County’s text message alert system.
News of the outage was then shared on various county social media pages, including the official Facebook page of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department.
For less than an hour, residents were unable to use county emergency lines or non-emergency lines linked to the Berkeley County Department of Emergency Communications.
“[Emergency officials] are working to resolve this issue,” stated the post on Facebook prior to the restoration. “Please contact your local fire, police, or EMS in the event of an emergency. We will update as soon as the lines are back up. Law enforcement can be reached at the following numbers: Berkeley County Sheriff’s Dept. 304-267-7000, Martinsburg City Police 304-264-2100 [and] West Virginia State Police 304-267-0000.”
In November, similar outages in other West Virginia counties left residents unable to contact emergency services for up to 10 hours cumulatively.