Jefferson Co 911 Down

[mike_s104]

Jefferson Co 911 down due to an accident on RT9. they have no power or phones. power lines down all over the rod, RT9 being shutdown. dispatch is talking to Charles Town units on Harper's Ferry Freq of 168.425. accident is in Ranson.

just heard someone (unit 300 I think) on the Sheriff's Dept. freq say he tried 911 and nothing. the dispatcher said all 911 calls were supposed to roll to somewhere but they aren't.

now they have an open mic on the main freq. nice... sounds like they reset the repeater but when it came back up it was still open.

unit 300 (Charles Town unit) is making calls for dispatch

10:00PM - accident update: fuel leak, requesting DoH for traffic.
10:05PM - HQ dispatcher requested that all "zones" be manned to answer the phones.
10:15PM - 300 advised that 911 calls are rolling to Charles Town PD.

 

[wfrd140]

Phones still out!

Heard an announcement over all VHF channels that phones would be out of service for another 7 hours.
ECC is communicating with "command" on ch 4 I wonder if this is at Charlestown PD or a mobile command post.

 

[mike_s104]

Heard an announcement over all VHF channels that phones would be out of service for another 7 hours.
ECC is communicating with "command" on ch 4 I wonder if this is at Charlestown PD or a mobile command post.

I know it's not a mobile just from listening to them last night. when did you hear the announcement? I figured they would have everything back up by now.

 

[wfrd140]

Around 16:30 Sunday

 

[mike_s104]

Around 16:30 Sunday

that's a long time to be without...

you'd think they would have been back up by now.

 

[mike_s104]

8:00PM - announced that they are back up.

 

[JESSERABBIT]

I thought that I heard an announcement to the effect that all 911 calls had been transferred to Jefferson Co Fire Company 4. (Independent Fire Company in Charles Town). Radios were sure quiet . If memory serves me correctly, they can transfer the calls if the destination is on the same circuit as the Commuiction circuit. I guess now with digital equipment, this may not be necessary.

 

[SLWilson]

Generator?

that's a long time to be without...
you'd think they would have been back up by now.

One has to wonder, in this day and age, WHY don't they have a BACKUP generator at their 911 facility?

I understand that they have NO CONTROL when someone takes down their telephone lines, but, ELECTRIC at a Public Safety ANSWERING Point is a MUST !!!!

Steve/Gallia

 

[smwincva]

I was listening too, and one of the fire department people described the damage to the phone lines as "severed trunk lines". If I remember right, the pole had been "uprooted" but not broken off. At least the phone comany did not wait till morning to start repairs (normal process). The phone calls were in fact switched to a FD, I think they also had the command bus there. The only they could not do was run police teletypes.

Steve

 

[wb8oif]

SLWilson, they do have generator backup at the Jefferson County EOC. I believe that the mention that they had no power referred to commercial power.

Bob

 

[SLWilson]

Ok...

SLWilson, they do have generator backup at the Jefferson County EOC. I believe that the mention that they had no power referred to commercial power.

Bob

OK. That sounds better....

We had an ice storm here on 2003. We had no commercial power for over FOUR days.

Our generator ran us through THAT disaster the whole time. Talk about a nervous WRECK, I was by the end of that time! But, the generator never failed us.

We keep it maintained. Runs every other Monday. Takes the building over too to test the throw.....

Steve/Gallia