The 911 emergency system for Whitman County was temporarily down Monday afternoon. The outage lasted around an hour and a half.

WSU students received an alert notifying them that the cities of Pullman and Moscow, including the campuses of Washington State Univerity and the University of Idaho, were among the areas affected. The alert was sent out June 15 at 3:59 p.m. Students also received phone calls and emails from WSU’s automated alert system.

Some residents received several repetitive phone calls and texts, due to a malfunction with the county’s auomated alert system. The alert system is managed by the company Everbridge, which is investigating the cause of the malfunction.

During the outage, dispatch services were unavailable through 911. Residents were directed to call the Whitcom Communications Center directly at (509) 332-2521 in the event of an emergency.

According to the City of Pullman website, Whitcom 911 provides police, fire and EMS dispatch services to all of Whitman County, Asotin County and the City of Moscow.

The exact cause of the outage remains unclear.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.