Update: 911 and land-line telephone service restored

Landline phone and 911 service was disrupted at approximately midnight. The Sheriff’s Office Dispatch was notified via radio from Grand Portage Casino that surveillance was unable to contact 911 or the non-emergency Sheriff's Office number 218-387-3030.

Upon further testing, it was determined that only the Gunflint area and 663- exchange numbers (Schroeder, Lutsen, Tofte area), were able to call 911, and that all other areas of the county were not able to call 911 or make other landline calls. Cell phone to cell phone calls were functioning, but calls to landline phones were not working.

According to Sheriff Pat Eliasen, deputies were on duty patrolling the county and personnel were sent to fire halls to be a physical and technological link to the law enforcement dispatch and emergency services through the ARMER radio system.

At about 3 p.m., law enforcement was informed that a break in the fiber line had been discovered in Tofte and crews were working to make repairs.

In the announcement this evening, Sheriff Pat Eliasen said, “We are very pleased that CenturyLink has repaired the fiber and that 911, and all phone service, is up and running.  

Sheriff Eliasen added, “I extend sincere thanks to the dedicated emergency responders who staffed Fire Halls overnight and throughout the day, our deputies, and our dispatch team for their dedication to public safety during adverse circumstances and extend my thanks to everyone who was involved in restoring this critical service.

“I also commend the efforts of our local CenturyLink employees for their work to repair the service as quickly as possible.”

Cook County will continue to push for a long-term solution to address and eradicate these outages.