The Incident – Why I Needed 911

I’ve always kind of wondered if I can call 911 with no cell service, but thankfully was never in a situation that I needed to actually try and find out. Then one day I was.

I live in an extremely remote area with little to no cell service. I was on my way home from visiting my Mom for her birthday and caught a bad day for travel. The whole 20+ mile of road was a complete skating rink. Ice everywhere. No grip around. Up a slightly steep hill I tried and my truck slid back into a bank. I couldn’t get out. I tried 4 high, 4 low, I salted the road, I tried to dig out my tires, I tried my mud boards, I just could NOT GET OUT AND UP THE HILL. In fact, I was just getting deeper and deeper into the ditch.

(Here’s where I’ll like you to my Tire Chains post which are exactly what I researched and bought after this ordeal.)

Now, I had my kids with me. If it were JUST me, perhaps I would have hiked the 5 miles home, but that wasn’t an option with 3 kids in sub freezing temps. Thankfully I brought some movies and my Mom had stocked us up with road snacks. I always keep an emergency kit in the truck too. See my “Emergency Vehicle Kit” for what I always have in the truck.

I picked up my phone to call my wonderful husband for his advice, but of course, I already knew, no service. Welp, let’s see if I can call 911 even if I don’t have any cell phone service.

Here we go. 9-1-1.

The Result – Did Calling 911 Work?

…Searching for Satellite…

A few, long seconds passed as I watched an animation on my phone of a radar searching for a satellite up in the sky.

It directed me to move to a more open area a few steps up the road.

…Connected… “911, what is the location of your emergency” *breath of relief*

I informed the 911 operator what had happened and also asked her kind heart to call my husband and let him know what was going on with us. She obliged and let me know an officer would be out to evalutate the situation. They were even able to pinpoint my extremely remote location from my call.

So, YES, I was thankfully able to call 911 even though I had no cell phone service. I hope you never find yourself in a dire situation, but perhaps I can take a little weight off your shoulders knowing if you need to call 911 and don’t have cell service, that I was indeed able to get ahold of some help when I needed it.

Stay safe out there now!