Webster County residents could still call for emergency help Thursday despite a widespread phone outage in Iowa.

Emergency 911 calls could be made with cell phones only, according to Brian Hitchcock, communications director for the Webster County Sheriff’s Department. Since a huge percentage of the population has cell phones, the outage should not have had a major impact on anyone’s ability to get help, he said.

He said 911 calls could not be made with landline phones.

The loss of service was caused by a burst pipe and subsequent power outage in a Des Moines building used by Lumen, a provider of telephone and internet services, Hitchcock said.