No snow day for 911
No snow day for 911
Dispatchers on the job in bad weather at county call center
news@theeveningtimes.com
There is a motto that the United States Postal Service has used since the days it first started delivering the mail.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
That saying could equally apply to the dispatchers at the county’s E-911 center.
While many schools and businesses got to take a snow day during this recent spell of snow and ice, the men and women who answer calls for help do not have that luxury.
“In our job, they have to be here,” said E-911 director Ronnie Sturch. “I tell them that when law enforcement stops responding to calls, when the fire department stops responding to calls, and when ambulances say they aren’t going to respond to calls because of the weather, then they don’t have to come in.”
And the chances of that happening are, of course, slim to none.
“They are still taking calls, so we have to be here to send them,” Sturch said.
Recent snow and ice which made road travel hazardous coupled with extreme cold weather brought major disruptions to the Mid-South.
Sturch said the 911 center saw a spike in calls for assistance — mostly for minor crashes or vehicles sliding off into the ditches. “It was about what you would expect — people sliding off into the ditches, accidents, and cars in the median,” Sturch said. “Fortunately, the accidents were all minor because of the speeds involved. But you still have the potential for a bad accident.”
Sturch said the emergency center remained fully staffed during the weather event.
“We have two to three dispatchers on each shift,” Sturch said. “And nobody called in who was unable to make it to work. It’s part of the business and they don’t complain about it.”
On a scale of one to 10, Sturch said the most recent snowfall was about a five in terms of the volume of calls.
“We saw our fair share,” Sturch said. “We had maybe a couple dozen.
When it first starts we see a lot on the interstate — cars and trucks sliding. But once the highway department gets out and starts clearing roads then it becomes the smaller rural areas and is localized. That is fairly typical with the weather.”
Sheriff Mike Allen echoed Sturch’s observations.
“It wasn’t too bad,” Allen said. “I guess the county judge said it best. It was kind of a “dry” snow. It wasn’t real nasty or icy. I think what has been worse is with people’s pipes bursting or drains freezing up because of the cold — stuff like that.”
Allen said most of the problems occur when motorists are going too fast and then hit an icy patch.
“If people would just take it slow you can avoid most of the problems,” Allen said.
By Mark Randall
