According to the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Office, only cell phone users in the area were able to call 911 number for about three hours Tuesday. The Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority was experiencing problems with its Qwest communications lines.

Officials said the lines were repaired and fully operational by 5:15 a.m.

MVRDA dispatchers were sent to the New Mexico state police headquarters in Las Cruces where calls were able to be received, according to authorities.

Officials said no major problems were believed to have been attributed to the temporary loss of communications.

Representatives from Qwest have attributed the problem to a routing configuration that was modified during the Dec.14 outage.

Residents are being encouraged to use MVRDA's nonemergency phone number, 575-526-0795, or the New Mexico state police dispatch number, 575-524-6111 in the event 911 is not operational.