Landline Outages Causes Concern

When landline service went out over the weekend in Rockingham County, Virginia, nearly 100 residents were affected. While service has been restored, the mishap highlighted some safety concerns. Some of the residents in the county live close to the mountains and often can’t get a reliable cell phone signal. When the landline service is down, they are left without a way to reach 911. It’s very serious. Especially for people that have lifeline services because there’s no way for them to contact 911 and if you are out in a rural area…you may have to travel a mile or a couple of miles to even get to somebody to get help so it’s a very serious deal that could affect someone’s life,” Fire Chief of Rockingham County Jeremy Holloway said. (WHSV-TV) Some residents even have to walk to the 257 Grocery Store to get cell phone reception. Officials are looking into adding a tower to the area, but for now they’re working with the phone companies so responders are notified immediately if a large-scale outage happens. No one was aware of the landline outage until WHSV-TV called emergency responders about it.