Damaged Cable Disrupts Pr. William 911 Center

A damaged phone cable line is creating problems at Prince William County's 911 center, with dispatchers reporting a number of dropped emergency calls.

Since about 10:15 a.m. Thursday, emergency and non-emergency calls to the county's Public Safety Communications Office in Woodbridge have been cut off and the county's phone system has made "phantom calls" to randomly-generated numbers, said Nikki Brown, a Prince William County spokeswoman.

"People are calling in but for some people, once they are on the call they are getting cut off," she said. Dispatchers also reported receiving phone calls from confused residents who saw on their caller ID that they had received a "phantom," or automatically-dialed, phone call from 911.

The disruption is affecting both landline and cellphones, Brown said. It was unclear this afternoon how many residents had been affected.

The outages started at about 10 a.m. Thursday, when a Verizon contractor accidentally cut a fiber-optic cable near the intersection of Prince William Parkway and Telegraph Road, said company spokesman Harry Mitchell.

Several thousand customers have been affected, predominantly in the area of Dale City, he said. Officials estimated repairs would be completed by Thursday evening.

"We regret this and are working very hard to get it back up as quickly as we can," Mitchell said.

Officials advised county residents calling 911 to immediately call back if their phone call is dropped. Callers can also use the 703-792-6500 non-emergency number.