My phone service is knocked out due to explosion
He might have AT&T cellular?
Doesn't matter, most/all phone systems should have "alternative routing" for circuits so as some part of it goes down, other parts take over. If his nearby neighborhood TOWER went off the air completely, I could see it
I used to install E911 systems, which mostly amounted (then) to in-building phone switches. Even back then in the analog days, systems were not dependent on one location to maintain at least part of the system.
Even in the limited world of 911 trunks if one dispatch goes down, there was (in the mid 90's) capability to re-route at least partial 911 service.
