The FCC originally announced intentions of allowing 911 texts to be made in 2011 - the service was made functional with certain carriers within a short list of cities today.

The carriers that support the service are as follows: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. The FCC's ultimate goal is to allow 911 texting nationwide.

Gizmodo says not to worry if it isn't available in your area, the FCC has laid out a timeline that requires text-to-911 to be rolled out everywhere by the end of 2014. You'll also have the ability to send photos with your text, although that capability isn't supported everywhere yet either. In any case, this is a very good thing, and one that will make getting help easier for a lot of people in an emergency.

I can already sense the misuse that will ensue, especially with allowing pictures to be sent. There wasn't any information, that I could find, pertaining to safeguards against pranksters using Skype for instance, to send a text.