 While anyone needing emergency assistance in parts of northern Minnesota earlier today had to dial a different number instead of 911, a fiber cable cut near Walker cut off 911 service for a large portion of northern Minnesota. Multiple counties including Beltrami and Itasca were affected by the outage. Anyone who tried calling 911 from a cell phone or landline would get a busy signal. For a period of time, callers had to use the non-emergency numbers for emergency calls. The issue was quickly identified and crews began working to repair the outage. This is an incident that occurs somewhere in Minnesota, probably annually if not a little bit more frequent. That's why we want to remind people if they're doing any excavating, cutting, digging, anything like that where they're disturbing the earth is to call 8-1-1. Have service in utility lines marked before you start digging. As of 2 this afternoon, 911 services had been restored and should be functioning as intended. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.