Overview

• A third-party vendor glitch on July 11 caused emergency calls to intermittently fail, and while some counties report full service restoration, others continue to experience sporadic outages.
• PEMA has convened technical experts to investigate the issue, and agency director Randy Padfield confirmed there is no evidence of a cyberattack.
• Governor Josh Shapiro and PEMA briefed the public on recovery efforts and advised reserving 911 for true emergencies while using non-emergency lines if calls fail.
• Local centers in York, Montgomery and additional counties activated backup protocols, rerouting calls to administrative numbers and publishing alternative contact information.
• The outage highlights recurring vulnerabilities in aging emergency infrastructure nationwide and renews calls for Next Generation 911 upgrades and stricter vendor oversight.