The state’s 911 services were restored Tuesday afternoon after going down statewide for about two hours.

During the outage, Island officials are urged people to call local phone numbers. Susan Schofield, the director of Dukes County 911 center, said that Island residents could still reach emergency services by calling 508-693-1212, the non-emergency line for the Dukes County Regional Emergency Communication Center.

“By calling the 1212 number, they will be put through the same trained operators. There will be no delay in response,” Ms. Schofield told the Gazette Tuesday afternoon. “They can still provide medical instructions over the phone and we can get units to where they need to go no problem.”

By 4:15 p.m., 911 services were back online, according to Ms. Schofield. She said that she was not given a reason as to why services went down, but said that there may be an investigation into the statewide outage. 

“Everything is back up,” she said. “We’ve tested our system and everything is working, so people are safe to call 911 again.”

On Wednesday, the state’s 911 department released a statement that said a firewall, a safety device that protects against hacking and other cyberattacks, stopped calls from getting to dispatch centers. The preliminary review of the event confirmed that the disruption was not due to a cyberattack. The specific cause of the disruption has not yet been determined.

Comtech, the telecommunications company that conducted the review, has taken steps to prevent the 911 services from going down, according to state.