BUFFALO, N.Y. — CrowdStrike's global outage impacted services provided by the Erie County Clerk's office, including New York State computer systems used by the DMV to process customer transactions. After working with the state's DMV IT department, those systems are back online at Erie County offices.
During Monday's press conference, Erie County Clerk Michael P. Kearns expressed his appreciation for his team's efforts in working to get their computer systems back online over the weekend.
"I'm pleased to inform the residents that the services we provide through the Erie County clerk's office and all of our auto bureau branches are fully operational and will be open for normal business hours," said Kearns.
"Erie County was literally the test pilot for self-repair," Kearns added. Auto Bureau manager Madonna Bishop said Erie County was the first to be 100 percent up and running.
Although these systems are back online, walk-ins should prepare for longer wait times at the DMV as Erie County locations experience an influx of customers from neighboring counties still experiencing tech issues.
"We have nearly 1,000 appointments we need to make up," said Kearns.
Although walk-ins will be accommodated, Kearns and Bishop both advise customers to schedule an appointment online- especially if their transaction is not urgent.
Niagara County released a statement today on Facebook that said "All 3 Niagara County DMV Offices are open. However, the North Tonawanda location is unable to process any transactions requiring a new photo including REAL-ID and Enhanced License documents." It continued, "There is NO estimated time on when this situation will be resolved".
After today, Kearns said he will reevaluate the need for more hours to be added to the county's DMV locations this week.
Bishop said the DMV has informed its customers- via email- about the next steps to take if their appointment was canceled.
"We requested that they bring those emails in this week and we'll give them preferential treatment," she added. "We're trying to encourage appointments and discourage walk-ins until we get this completely under control."
Appointments can be made online by clicking here.