View Full Version : Cut cable shuts down 911



Keith
09-14-2004, 08:19 AM
Cut cable crashes 911 calls


By Chad Previch
The Oklahoman

A cable running into Oklahoma City's 911 operations center was accidentally cut Monday, causing the system to crash and hampering emergency calls.
Silence greeted residents calling 911 about 6 p.m. Firefighters suddenly lost communication with each other while battling a blaze on the city's east side.

"This is not a good situation," fire Maj. Brian Stanaland said Monday night.

SBC spokesman Andy Morgan said a contracted crew working for another local phone company cut his company's line near NE 36 and Martin Luther King Avenue.

The city's 911 system failed as the cable was cut. Fire, police and Emergency Medical Services Authority officials scrambled to communicate with each other.

SBC workers were able to transfer 911 calls to regular police phone numbers after the line was cut, said Ron Hill, director of the city's emergency operations center.

Those calls were answered the old-fashioned way, outside the center at police headquarters and briefing stations throughout the night, Hill said.

"It's just not as convenient for us," Hill said.

The center's busiest time is about 6 p.m. -- the same time it went down Monday.

Stanaland said firefighters lost radio communication with each other, and fire dispatchers were forced to make phone calls to each station instead of broadcasting emergencies in real time as usual.

During the evening, firefighters regained some communication that let them talk with each other if they were within a city block of each other, Stanaland said.

He couldn't remember the city's system ever crashing.

Police asked people to dial 911 only with emergency calls.

Everyone else was encouraged to use normal police numbers, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker said.

"Emergency responders are trained to overcome obstacles, and this was a situation that we worked around until the system was restored," he said. "This was a challenge that we worked around until the cause of the disruption was located."

A new $4.6 million communications system is under construction on the city's northwest side. It will be operational about March, Hill said.

The new center will immediately reroute calls if wires are cut, Hill said.

Crews worked to fully restore the system late Monday.

I am really shocked that there wasn't a better back up system. The police and fire lost all access to computers, MDT's, and most radios. Plus, the 911 system being down for such a long period of time. Listening to my scanner yesterday evening, at one time, they had all 4 divisions, Santa Fe, Hefner, Will Rogers, and Springlake, operating on one channel.

Many of the Lt's that were in charge were scrambling to find a way for the officers to communicate. They were able to use a few of the secondary frequencies to communicate, however, the secondary frequencies have lots of static and low modulation.

I understand that a phone contractor, not SBC, had cut the line and just left the area. Therefore, when SBC showed up, they had to troubleshoot in the area to find the cut cable. I imagine the fur will fly when they find out who the contractor was. We are fortunate no major crimes happened during this outage.

Patrick
09-14-2004, 05:13 PM
Yeah, when I heard about this last night, I thought this was crazy. We need to have a better back up system in this city.

mranderson
09-14-2004, 05:22 PM
Keith said how the police reacted.

I monitor the fired department. It seems there were no calls all night, then whamo. All of a sudden half the stations were backlogged.

By the way. When the cut occured, the fire deaprtment was fighting a major apartment fire and lost communication with command, dispatch and the companies. They had to use their disaster command center as a backup.

I bet this is the last time the contractor works in Oklahoma City. I see a lawsuit brewing. Just hope no one died as a result.