When this happened a few months ago, it was due to a large fiber line being cut. As the line was the main for a data center used by a company that provides 911 software to numerous departments, it knocked a bunch offline for a few hours until they were able to route around the damage or switch to backup systems.
Odds are it is something similar, a hardware failure, or someone pushed out a crappy software update.
"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." - Sir Winston Churchill
