by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 14, 2024 | Comm Center News
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Power supporting Houston Emergency Center’s communications system was disrupted on Monday night, causing the system to at least partially fail.
Approximately 6,000 calls occur daily to Houston’s fire, emergency medical services, and police, with law enforcement routinely routed through the center.
Inside the center, call-takers accept 911 calls on consoles, inputting the information into a computer-aided dispatch, or CAD system. That information is then forwarded to dispatchers for various departments.
During planned electrical upgrades on Monday, Houston Emergency Center Director Robert Mock said parts of the CAD system unexpectedly crashed.
“This was a loss of power,” he explained.
With parts of the CAD system down and others malfunctioning, call-takers had to write down information coming in on homicides, heart attacks, and house fires by hand.
Mock explained that departments were impacted differently because the CAD system has different terminals.
The Houston Police Department was reportedly directly impacted for about an hour. In contrast, the Houston Fire Department reported being directly impacted for approximately 4.5 hours.
“It’s a big octopus,” Mock said of the CAD system and its different terminals.
Issues didn’t subside after information was manually relayed to dispatchers. Houston police dispatch consoles were knocked out, too.
On Wednesday, the city said it was still working to determine how many consoles were knocked out. Dispatchers on impacted consoles shifted to radio.
“We’ve experienced things like this in the past. We have equipment. We have computers. Things fail. Things go down, but these are our contingencies,” Mock said.
Initial reports from officials stated the failure lasted just a few minutes. Mock said he believed it lasted an hour but acknowledged the fire department might have been directly impacted 4.5 times longer.
The fire department reported the issues lasted from approximately 11:20 p.m. Monday to 3:50 a.m. Tuesday.
Mock said the dispatch outages lasted from approximately 11:30 p.m. Monday to 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.
During that time, he said dispatchers received 260 calls, 82% of which were answered in 15 seconds or less. The target is 90%.
ABC13 is still working to learn how first responders’ response times were impacted. The fire department only acknowledged that calls were delayed but said: “They were all responded to.”
Houston police were referred to the “catastrophic loss of communication policy.” The policy states:
“In the event of a catastrophic radio and computer (MCD) failure, all on-duty patrol personnel, including supervisors, are to report to their assigned Houston Police Station. Once there, a supervisor shall provide information, equipment, and assignments consistent with the particular emergency and the orders of the Chief of Police. Communications, assignments, and specific duties shall be developed by the Chief of Police for each emergency and distributed via the chain of command.”
As of Wednesday evening, it remains unclear if officers – and if so, which ones – were ordered to report back to their stations.
For more updates on this story, follow Shannon Ryan on Facebook, X and Instagram.
SEE ALSO: 13 Investigates: 911 call takers ‘overworked’ while responding to crisis calls
13 Investigates found last year, 44 emergency call takers left Houston. Half of those employees who left were there for less than six months.
‘He was snoring’: 911 call-taker heard sleeping under investigation
The Houston Emergency Center are investigating an incident where a 911 call taker seems to have fallen asleep while answering a call for help. In the video above, you’ll hear the audio from the call in question.
Copyright © 2024 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 14, 2024 | Comm Center News
Marietta, GA – Austell residents who call 911 will now have their calls for assistance answered by Cobb County 911 emergency communications professionals. Cobb County’s Department of Emergency Communications (DEC) assumed emergency communications and dispatch services from the City of Austell on March 13, following approval by the Cobb County Board of Commissioners.
“We are honored to extend our services to the Austell community and welcome the Austell Police and Fire departments as our public safety partners,” said Cobb DEC Director Melissa Alterio. “The citizens of Austell should not even notice this transition has occurred.”
Along with receiving calls from Austell citizens, Cobb DEC will receive the revenue the City of Austell collected from the state distribution of 911 funds; the city collected approximately $200,000 in 911 fees in 2023. Adding Austell’s 10,000 calls a year to the county’s more than 900,000 call volume should not significantly impact Cobb 911 operations.
Cobb DEC’s mission is to provide excellent, professional service to the community. Austell residents can rest assured that the DEC team of emergency communications professionals will handle their emergency calls professionally and efficiently.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 14, 2024 | Comm Center News
Marion County has a big wish list, one that officials hope voters will help them pay for by approving a 20-year renewal for the penny sales tax in the general election.
Officials have finalized the transportation and public safety projects they hope to accomplish with the $65 million per year that the sales tax is expected to raise. County commissioners wrapped up their planning with a workshop on March 5 to review the complete project list for sheriff, fire, emergency medical services and communications.
If voters approve renewing the sales tax in the November general election, this project list will serve as the general guide for how the revenue will be spent, but it can be adjusted as necessary, said County Administrator Mounir Bouyounes.
All of the project costs are based on the value of today’s dollar and do not include any adjustments to inflation or growth. The projects will be reviewed annually through the budget service to ensure accurate numbers to costs and funding.
Out of the total sales tax revenue of $1.3 billion for the next 20 years, 20% will be devoted to public safety, split between the Marion County Sheriff’s Office and Marion County Fire Rescue. Much of that money will be spent on new vehicles.
“For public safety, we’re going to be replacing vehicles and equipment,” Bouyounes said. “That’s probably going to be the top priority for all of them.”
Over the next 20 years, MCFR will need over $24.8 million to replace 13 engines, 12 grass trucks, one tower, two heavy rescues, 10 tankers and 24 staff vehicles. EMS needs to replace 67 rescue vehicles, which would cost about $30.1 million.
MCSO will need nearly $55 million to replace 48 vehicles for the jail department, 68 vehicles for the regular department, 747 vehicles for the patrol department and three vehicles for the bailiff department.
Other funds will be used to remodel aging facilities and build new ones. Fire rescue needs to remodel Stations 1, 10, 12, 15, 19 and 22, which will cost about $6 million, at $1 million per renovation. Phase 2 of the fire rescue training facility would also be funded by the penny sales tax, and cost $15 million.
EMS will need two new stations, one on the west side and another on the east side of Ocala, costing $5.3 million each. Modular stations will be placed in Pedro, Ocklawaha, Baldwin Ranch and Westport and cost $450,000 each.
“With the new EMS modular stations, those most likely will be also fire stations,” Bouyounessaid. “We are proposing we start with a module arrangement and then we expand them in the future as needed.”
Public safety communication officials need to build towers to replace eight leased towers, which would cost $1 million each. The towers at Forest, Baseline and MCSO all need replacing as they are all over 30 years old, which will cost $500,000 each.
A new animal services center is estimated to cost about $20.4 million.
The sheriff’s facility needs will include major renovations to the jail, including improving the medical area for $2.5 million in addition to new district offices for the patrol division in Marion Oaks, Forest, Shores and the southwest area, costing $4.5 million each.
The sheriff will also need $2.5 million in funding for Phase 2 of its aviation hangar, $2.5 million for a facilities workshop, $5.5 million to expand and renovate the fleet building, $5 million for a new emergency operations warehouse, $5.25 million for a special operations warehouse, $10 million for a new building for operations expansion, and $5 million to repave the sheriff complex.
Funding would also be allocated to purchase a new helicopter for the sheriff’s office, which would cost $4.6 million.
The majority of the other projects that need funding are to purchase new and replace old equipment across all areas of MCSO, MCFR, EMS and communications.
“We just replaced a bunch of our radios for the first responders and the sheriff’s frontline (for emergency operations),” Bouyounes said. “During that 20-year time frame, we’re going to have to replace them again and the estimated cost is about $16.5 million.”
Transportation projects in total will take up 70% of the sales tax revenue, at an estimated cost of $962 million. Notable road projects which the county hopes to partially fund through the sales include the Interstate 75 interchange, a new traffic management center and the bridge replacement at I-75 and County Road 484.
“You have included here on the project list a new traffic management center, which has been discussed a few times in the past,” Bouyounes said. “To start looking at the southwest/northeast corridor, that it’s going to be a huge project for the county to undertake, and I think it will have a major impact on how we move traffic around.”
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 14, 2024 | Comm Center News
CORDOVA, Alaska (KTUU) – From the East Coast to the Last Frontier, airmen from the Maine National Guard — often referred to as “MAINEiacs” — made the long journey up to Alaska last week to take part in the large-scale disaster response exercise put on by the state alongside the Alaska National Guard.
Two training exercises — known as Alaska EX to the state and Vigilant Guard to the military — tested the response protocols of varying entities in the face of a large natural disaster. The scenario was that a 9.2 earthquake struck Southcentral, triggering a series of aftershocks and tsunamis. Cordova was hit with a 15-foot wave.
And while the City of Cordova worked to establish an emergency communications center after evacuating its coastline, guardsmen from both Alaska and Maine deployed a Disaster Response Bed-Down Set (DRBS) at a camper park near the city’s center.
The kit is essentially a self-sufficient, fully independent camp for responders who answer the call to action after a disaster occurs. The system breaks down into transportable-sized cubes that can be flown into disaster-stricken areas. Once deployed, the camp has housing, sanitization, and feeding capabilities for response personnel. The idea is to not put an additional burden on a community in need.
Training on the Alaska National Guard’s DRBS was a perfect opportunity for the Maine guardsmen, as their unit is set to be issued one in the near future.
Maine Airman Carly Morrow jumped at the chance to participate after completing basic and technical training just one month prior.
“My sergeant called me and was like, ‘Do you want to go on a mission to Alaska?’ and I was like, ‘I’ll take any opportunities I can get,’” Morrow said. “I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can.”
Senior Master Sgt. Blake Varnell was one of the Alaska-based guardsmen who assisted with their training.
“We brought a seven-personnel crew with us to help train and help guide,” Varnell said. “This is their mission, their exercise, but as you can tell it’s all hands on deck trying to make sure we’ve got everything set up before it gets too dark.”
Dozens of Maine personnel alongside a handful of members from Alaska’s 176th Wing flew to Cordova via a C-17 Globemaster III, wasting no time loading the kit onto flatbed trailers for transport to Odiak Camper Park.
The scaled-down set included three housing tents, generators for electricity, HVAC systems, and an Expandable Single Pallet Expeditionary Kitchen (E-SPEK) — a piece of the DRBS that was a major point of interest for Master Sgt. Douglas Bishoff, who is the superintendent of services for the Maine Air National Guard.
“The E-SPEK is designed so you can take it anywhere in the world, drop it off, and cook within an hour,” Bishoff said. “You can have up to 400-500 meals if you’re serving [Unitized Group Rations].”
According to Bishoff the E-SPEK only takes four people to set up and is a rapid means of providing hot meals, whether to responders or displaced residents.
The collaborative effort between Alaska and Maine took all day to complete, working well after sunset in rainy conditions with temperatures hovering around freezing. After successfully troubleshooting an issue with the E-SPEK’s burners, the guardsmen shared a hot meal cooked in the mobile kitchen before retiring to their cots inside the housing tents.
The following morning, crews broke the kit back down in a fraction of the time it took to set up.
For Senior Master Sgt. Kenneth Brezovsky, it was likely his last training trip before he retires in 2025. Like Varnell, he’s part of the services team whose focus was on the E-SPEK but worked more with the civil engineers to allow the younger generation more hands-on opportunities with the mobile kitchen.
“With my services team I have a lot of young people, and I’m getting done next year so I tried to stay out of that to let them learn without my old knowledge in there,” Brezovsky said. “There’s a lot of new stuff going in the kitchen.”
Brezovsky said the guardsmen benefited from the training exercise and even had suggestions on improving the operation’s effectiveness going forward.
For what could be his last trip with the National Guard, Brezovsky was thrilled that his first time in Alaska was with his fellow guardsmen.
Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.
by AllThingsECC.com | Mar 14, 2024 | Comm Center News
HONOLULU (KHON2) — The state continues to help Maui move forward seven months after the Lahaina wildfires ravaged the westside of the island. HI-EMA, along with other partners, recently announced the planned deployment of fire and wind sensors. HI-EMA Administrator James Barros joined Wake Up 2day to talk about those topics and more.
Here’s more information about the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, according to its state website:
The Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) plans for and responds to both natural and human-caused emergencies. These include emergencies resulting from all hazards, from tsunamis, wildfires, and hurricanes to incidents involving hazardous materials or nuclear power. The agency prepares and implements a statewide Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, and routinely conducts extensive exercises to test state and county emergency response capabilities.
HI-EMA is the coordinating agency on emergencies of all kinds between federal and local agencies, including the four county emergency management agencies – Hawaiʻi County Civil Defense, Maui Emergency Management Agency, City and County of Honolulu Department of Emergency Management, and Kauaʻi Emergency Management Agency – and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
After an incident, HI-EMA conducts damage assessment surveys and advises the Governor on whether to declare an emergency and seek federal relief funds. The agency maintains a primary Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Diamond Head Crater, Honolulu. HI-EMA also operates State Warning Point, a state emergency communications center staffed 24 hours, 7 days a week. The center maintains statewide communications with county emergency officials and other partners.
