Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office phone service restored after outage

Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office phone service was restored at the Eureka Main Station, McKinleyville Station and Garberville Station after a 24-hour outage that left residents relying on backup contact numbers for non-emergency help.

While the lines were down, the county told people to call 9-1-1 for emergencies and use (707) 502-7579 or (707) 601-5504 for non-emergency assistance. The outage notice was posted at 8:40 a.m. June 25, and the restoration update came at 8:40 a.m. June 26, putting the disruption at exactly one day.

The disruption was more than an inconvenience for staff. It temporarily cut off a major public contact point for routine questions, records requests, service referrals and other non-emergency matters, while Humboldt County IT worked with AT&T to restore service. At the time of the notice, the county said there was no estimated restoration time, and it also said other Humboldt County departments were affected.

The Sheriff’s Office serves more than 136,000 residents and operates four patrol stations and one correctional facility, so even a short interruption can reach far beyond a single office line. The county also describes the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services as the primary local coordination agency for emergencies and disasters affecting residents, public infrastructure and government operations, which makes the phone outage a public-safety issue as well as a communications failure.

For people trying to reach the main Eureka station once normal service returned, the contact number is 707-445-7251 at 826 Fourth Street in Eureka. The Garberville Station is listed at 715 Cedar Street, Suite B, with phone number 707-923-2761. During any future outage, the county’s instruction remained clear: use 9-1-1 only for emergencies, and switch to the posted temporary numbers for non-emergency help until regular lines come back online.