OTTUMWA, IOWA -- On Monday our Facebook fans wanted to know that answer to the following question; with more and more people dropping their landlines for cell phones, how does that affect the way calls made to 911 are handled?

KTVO went to Wapello County Sheriff Don Kirkendall for the answer.  Sheriff Kirkendall told KTVO Monday that if you have an out of state cell phone number and you call 911, your phone call will be answered by local emergency responders.

“If somebody needs to dial 911 on a cell phone, when they dial 911, it’s going to go to the closest cell phone tower, that in-turn is going to route the call to the closest 911 answering point.  I suppose there could be glitches in the system.  Typically even a cell phone that isn’t working and we tell people this all the time, especially if they are traveling in the winter, even if it is charged up, and they don’t have a number for it, they can still dial 911 with it,” said Sheriff Kirkendall.

Sheriff Kirkendall also went onto say that with the new g-p-s systems built into cell phones; emergency responders can pin-point locations within a couple hundred feet if the call is disrupted.

“With 911 calls coming in, we are given coordinates and that gives us an approximate location where that call is being made from.  In a lot of instances, it will give the closest address.  Our dispatchers have a map where they can see the coordinates that they see over the 911 screen to tell them about within a few hundred feet where that call is being placed from,” said Sheriff Kirkendall.

So if you are in trouble and you have your cell phone with you, emergency crews will be able to help you if you need assistance.