Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office Communications Sgt. Justin Russell, 46, of Echo, takes an emergency call Wednesday, April 12, 2023, at the dispatch center in Pendleton. Russell has been working 15 years at the dispatch center.

UMATILLA COUNTY — Phone lines are still down for Umatilla County’s 911 Regional Dispatch Center in Pendleton as of 11:52 a.m. Friday, July 18. They were announced as down at 9:10 a.m.

Incoming emergency calls are being rerouted to the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office, per the center’s emergency operations plan, according to Capt. Sterrin Ward with the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office.

The Morrow County Sheriff’s Office has the same computer-aided dispatch system as Umatilla County’s 911 Regional Dispatch Center, Ward said, so once the call is received and entered, Umatilla County’s center can see the request for service and dispatch emergency responders.

Because the same system is used, Ward said, emergency response times “should not be impacted.”

Texts sent to 911 are working and being received in Umatilla County’s dispatch center.

All other regular business phone lines also are not operating. Technicians are working to identify and resolve the issue, but Ward said they don’t have a timeframe for getting them back up.

More to come.