Perfect storm' knocks out 911 service

* Much of Monday's storm damage was focused on the city's northwestern edge, authorities say.

J.D. Sumner

ALBANY — Calling it the “perfect storm,” Dougherty County’s EMA director says they still haven’t discovered how the area’s 911 system, designed to withstand most natural disasters, shut down during a thunderstorm Monday evening.

As rain, hail and near hurricane-force winds moved through the metro area around 8:30 p.m. Monday, Dougherty County’s lifeline between the public and public safety officials went down.

“It’s not supposed to happen,” EMA Director and Fire Chief James Carswell said. “I’m not sure exactly, at this point, why all of them failed; the phones were down, the radios were down, and the CAD system was down. Everything shut down.”

Carswell said that the system is designed to handle catastrophes including severe weather and power outages, but that, for some reason, all of the backups designed to keep the system functional, failed.

“I don’t know if we’re calling it the perfect storm or not, but everything that could go wrong did,” he said.

The storm that toppled trees and brought down power lines, shut off the department’s computer and telephone capabilities, Carswell said.

After several minutes, Carswell said that the system slowly started to come back on line, allowing just a few of the department’s lines to open.

Meanwhile, operators were forced to use portable radios to communicate with police, fire and EMS units who were responding during the storm.

The storm came virtually out of nowhere, giving area residents little advance notice through traditional TV and radio warnings. But the county’s new CODE RED notification system — which calls registered users when severe weather or other emergencies are threatening their area — was successfully used for the first time, Carswell said.

By Tuesday morning, most of the 1,000 people who lost power during the storm had it restored.

On the city’s northwestern edge, homes were more greatly impacted, Carswell said.

“There were a lot of trees down and lines down over near Nottingham, Gail and that area,” he said.

Despite the damage, no injuries were reported and no vital calls were missed while 911 was down, although Carswell said that an immediate investigation is under way to determine the cause of the failure.

from: http://www.albanyherald.com/archives/News/2008/front061108f.html

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