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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Geri Gibbonsggibbons@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div>HANOVER TWP. &#8212; In an emergency, Luzerne County residents can now text 911 rather than calling.In a press release, the county said the two primary reasons for use of the service would be in the case of someone who is speech or hearing impaired or if someone is unable to make a phone call, such as during a home invasion, during a domestic violence incident or if a medical emergency makes it impossible for someone to talk.The system can accept message from Verizon, AT&amp;T, Sprint, T-Mobile and the Over the Top (OTT) texting application made available by Comcast XFINITY.The county stressed that a phone call to 911 is the most efficient way to reach emergency help, with texting not always being instantaneous and with response times slightly longer.Texting guidelines include:&#8226; Providing location information and nature of emergency in the first text message.&#8226; Understanding that 911 text messages have the same 160-character limit as other text messages.&#8226; Texts to 911 should include texts only, with no pictures, videos or other attachments.&#8226; Texts to 911 should not include abbreviations or slang.&#8226; Customers must be in the range of cell towers in Luzerne County.&#8226; In the case that customers are outside cell tower range, they will receive a &#8220;bounce back&#8221; message advising them to make a voice call to 911.The texting function should only be used for emergency situations that require an immediate response from police, fire or emergency medical services.Non-emergency issues should still be communicated to the Luzerne County 911 Center through its non-emergency line at 570-819-4916.<div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Geri Gibbons at 570-991-6117 or on Twitter @TLGGibbons</shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County 911 now able to accept texts