Strong thunderstorms wreaked havoc on the Northeast’s 911 communications system, wiping out cell service calls to over a dozen counties Thursday evening.

Several counties were still without complete restored 911 services Friday morning.

According to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Carbon and Schuylkill counties, as well as Columbia, Montour, Bradford, Clinton, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Lycoming, Pike, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Wayne and Wyoming counties were all down as a result of a widespread Verizon outage that occurred during the storms that rolled through just after 6 p.m.

All fire departments were asked to man stations in the affected counties in the event an emergency happened and the caller could not reach 911.

According to reports, a tree was struck by lightning and came down on a Verizon fiber pipeline. The tree and pipeline then caught fire, burning the fiber connectivity.

Neighboring Monroe County’s 911 system was down for approximately three hours last night, but most service was restored around 9 p.m.

Gary Williams, Carbon County 911 director, said Friday morning that the system is still partially down, with landlines and texting coming through, but several cell carriers receiving a fast busy tone.

He said that it has been hit-and-miss, adding that since Monroe has been restored, Carbon has a dispatcher taking calls coming into Carbon from the Monroe center and dispatching emergency services through the CAD to CAD system.

Williams also noted that Carbon 911 can also utilize other programs for dispatchers to see calls coming in and then answering them through the Prepared 911 text platform.

The texting service was utilized this morning for an ambulance call in Jim Thorpe, he said.

Currently, Williams said the two best ways to contact 911 if there is an emergency and you do not have a landline is to either text 911 and it will go to the communications center in Carbon; or call the Monroe communications number 570-992-9911.

“It’s all cellphone related,” he said.

Verizon was expected to be working on the problem this morning with an anticipated restoration of service sometime today.

Maryellen Keegan, Monroe County Emergency Management director, released a statement this morning, saying that there are “residual issues” following the outage, but the 911 calls “are being routed to the Monroe County 911 Center, however, if you feel that your call may not or is not going through please” text 911 or call 570-992-9911.

As of 9 a.m. Friday, Schuylkill County 911 Communications Center reported that Verizon technicians were in the process of repairing a burned fiber cable that caused the outage.

Verizon Wireless calls continue to be answered by the Berks County 911 Center.

Communications Center Director Scott Krater asks that people needing emergency try calling 911 first. If their call doesn’t go through, call 610-655-4918, and the Berks County Communication Center will relay the request for assistance.

All cellphone users can text emergencies to the Schuylkill County 911 Center at 570-671-2346.

Radio communications have not been affected by this outage. Police, fire, and EMS agencies continue to respond to emergency calls, Interim Emergency Management Coordinator John W. Blickley said.

“Enola (Cumberland County) is where the massive problem is,” Krater said.

“We’re able to take calls and dispatch emergency responders. Radio communications are fine, we don’t have a problem with that,” he said.

Krater said he anticipates service to be back sometime later today, if all goes well.

This is a rare situation, with many counties putting redundancy operations in place in the event a county’s 911 system goes down. In that instance, all calls would be rerouted to a neighboring county and then dispatched accordingly.

Correspondent Chris Parker contributed to this report.