Verizon glitch downs 911 net

Emergency phone network fails in Newport Beach and other areas.Officials blamed a computer glitch for a massive outage of the 911 emergency telephone system that affected Newport Beach and Huntington Beach -- as well as other areas of Orange and Los Angeles counties -- for the greater part of Tuesday.

Phone service was restored by Tuesday afternoon, and the 911 system is working, officials said.

While the 911 system was down, people were instructed to call alternative numbers if they needed emergency assistance.

The outage was caused by an “equipment failure” in the Long Beach central office of Verizon communications, said Verizon spokesman Jon Davies, adding that it was not related to the thunderstorms and rainfall that hit the area.

The malfunction, noticed at 2:20 a.m. Tuesday, occurred in a computer that is responsible for routing phone calls, Davies said.

The Newport Beach Police Department did not report any safety issues resulting from the downed 911 system.

The city of Laguna Beach also experienced phone problems, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The Costa Mesa Police Department said the outage had not affected the city’s 911 system.

Huntington Beach Police activated their emergency operations center early Tuesday to handle the 911 system failure, Huntington Beach Lt. Craig Jungingersaid. Incoming 911 calls from within the city are normally received at the dispatch center within the police department. Due to the phone outage, the dispatch center was not receiving 911 calls from most places in the city. However, emergency calls placed from the city’s downtown area were getting through, Junginger said.

John Britton, an SBC spokesman, said the outage was “a Verizon issue.” Phone systems throughout Huntington Beach were down, including all police department phone numbers, Junginger said.