FCC examining storm damage to area phone networks after 911 calls failed

The Federal Communications Commission is looking into the damage that the massive storm that swept from the Midwest into the Northeast on June 29 caused to wireless and landline phone networks in the mid-Atlantic.

As of the morning of July 2, 16 percent of cell towers in West Virginia were still disabled. Nearly 11 percent of Maryland's towers were down, as well as 9 percent in Virginia and 3 percent in Washington, D.C., according to the FCC. Widespread power outages also caused problems for many 911 call centers in the region. Lauren Kravetz, a spokeswoman for the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, said the commission is still investigating the problems with emergency calls, but that 911 operators might have been unable to identify a caller's number and location. She said it is unclear how many people were unable to make an emergency call at all.