(NEWSnet/AP) – Many of the emergency 911 service outages that hit several states Wednesday night were caused by the installation of a light pole in Missouri, an official with a company that operates fiber lines said Thursday.

Outages were reported in Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota and Texas. Service was restored by Thursday morning in most of the affected areas.

Although the Federal Communications Commission and other agencies continued to investigate, the outages in Nevada, South Dakota and Nebraska stemmed from a cut fiber line “due to a third-party company installing a light pole — unrelated to our service,” Mark Molzen, global issues director for Lumen Technologies, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Service was restored within 2 1/2 hours, he said.

Molzen said Lumen is not a 911 provider in Texas, so the loss of service there was unrelated to the line cut in Kansas City, Missouri. There were no reports of 911 outages in Kansas City.

“We are aware of reports of 911-related outages and we are currently investigating,” the Federal Communications Commission said in a statement posted on X. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which houses the National 911 Program, said in a statement that its Office of Emergency Medical Services “is monitoring this issue.”

In Douglas County, Nebraska, home to Omaha and more than a quarter of the state’s residents, 911 Director Kathy Allen said Lumen informed the agency at 1:42 a.m. that service was restored, but the county “did experience a few more issues.” Service was fully restored by 4 a.m., Allen said in a statement.

Across the country, many of the affected police departments posted messages on social media about the disruption and the recommended alternatives they offered for residents trying to reach emergency services.

Officials in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said during a news conference Thursday that the outage was unprecedented.

“To our knowledge, we have never experienced an outage of this magnitude or duration,” Assistant Fire Chief Mike Gramlick said.

Cut fiber lines and other problems have caused 911 outages in recent years in Nebraska. The issue was worrisome enough that the Nebraska Public Service Commission hosted a hearing on the topic in December.

The outages, ironically, occurred in the midst of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

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