Severed cable causes 911 lines to go down in Wis. Dells, Juneau Co.

Phone companies work to repair problems

MAUSTON, Wis. — Officials said the 911 phone lines were down in Juneau County and Wisconsin Dells on Wednesday.

In an alert just after noon, the Juneau County Sheriff’s Department said the county and some surrounding agencies’ 911 lines were not working.

At 12:17 in the afternoon, the Wisconsin Dells Police Department said its 911 system was also down.

A spokesperson with Frontier Communications, the company working on restoring the outage, said a cable outside of the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage was cut, but they said residents can still dial 911.

They said 911 callers will be redirected to the non-emergency line, so the outage shouldn’t be putting the public at any risk.

In an email, Wisconsin Dells Chief of Police Jody Ward said he did not have a timeframe for when repairs would be completed, but he said they have reached out to local businesses and medical facilities to inform them of the problem.

Ward said he was not aware of any emergencies that were effected by the outage.

Officials said anyone needing 911 services should call the dispatch number: In Juneau County, call 608-847-5649 and in Wisconsin Dells call 608-253-1611.

Juneau County officials said the 911 phone lines were back in service just before 9 p.m. Wednesday.