Cave Junction, Ore. — Thousands of Illinois Valley residents have been with a phone outage, and the inability to call 911.
“I just went to use the phone system this morning and there was no dial tone,” said Betty Vau. Vau is an Illinois Valley resident and unfortunately, was without phone service.
“Yesterday at 7 a.m. – we were notified that an outage had occurred here, that was impacting the whole area,” said Jason Bayless, Illinois Valley Fire District.
The Illinois Valley Fire District said the outage affected approximately 2,200 residents in the valley.
“We have four extensions so I went and checked them all – none of them were working,” Vau said.
It’s been a common occurrence for Vau.
“Same thing happened a week ago, our phones were just dead. We had electricity, but no phones,” said Vau.
Though it can be frustrating at times, Vau said it’s one of the small prices to pay for living in the Illinois Valley.
“Sort of chalk it up to the area that we live in. I just accept it as one of the things that happens when you live out,” said Vau.
Whether you live out or not, the fire district wants residents to know they are always available in case of an emergency.
“You’ll be able to reach us, it’s just a different way of reaching us. You may have to go to your local fire station in your area,” said Bayless.
But the Illinois Valley Fire District said the best thing you can do to prepare for another phone outage is to have an emergency cell phone.
“Just have it charged and dial 911. That’s going to go to the dispatch center,” said Bayless.
According to the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety and the Josephine County 911 Agency, as of around 2 p.m. on Wednesday, phone service and the ability to reach 911 has been restored.
NBC5 reached out to Frontier Communications on Wednesday for comment, but our calls were not returned.
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