MOULTRIE, Ga. – Wednesday’s disruption in Windstream internet and phone services hit many residents and businesses, but it also hit the county’s E-911 center. The center was never fully offline, but its operations were affected.
The center has a total of ten operating phone lines with six emergency lines and four administrative lines, Theresa Warburg, the Colquitt County E-911 Center’s director, said
On Wednesday, the center’s four administrative lines were down, but the emergency lines remained active. Although the center had a phone outage, they did not have issues with their internet service, which is provided by CNSNext.
Each dispatcher answers the phones as the calls come in. The call volumes vary from day to day. Warburg said the center experienced high call volume Wednesday due to the widespread internet and phone outages.
“Our phone lines rang like crazy yesterday, but it was mostly people concerned that someone had tampered with their telephone line or wanted to know what was going on or how long it’s going to take to be back on,” she said by phone Thursday.
The center has two procedures in case of a service interruption. The first procedure is to contact their phone provider and transfer their 911 lines to an alternative number.
“We have a contact number [through] AT&T, and we transfer our 911 lines to another number. Normally it would be [through] the sheriff’s department, that is our protocol currently because the sheriff’s department no longer has their dispatch operational over there,” she explained.
If the center’s radios are still working, they would instead transfer the lines to one cell phone in dispatch until the issue is resolved.
“If it’s just going to be for a short time, we will operate in that manner. If it’s going to be long-term, then we will send them to the sheriff’s department, and we will send someone over there from dispatch to answer the telephone calls over there,” she said.
There are currently 17 people staffed at the center. Each shift must have four people delegated.
“Right now, I’m down to three on a couple of shifts due to some out on training [and] medical leave. When you only have three dispatchers, it kind of puts a burden [on others] because you [only have] eight radios. Three people trying to man eight radios and all those phones can get a little crazy at times,” she added.
Warburg says the center is eager to help the callers, but in an event like an outage, callers need to be aware of their resources.
“We posted [about] it on the county Facebook page right away, that our lines were down [and] only to call 911 for emergencies. Just go to your resources, as far as, if they have Facebook,” she explained.
“[By] calling 911, we can help you and just tell you that the lines are down and that you haven’t been tampered with. But when they ask questions about how long [the lines] will be down. Those questions we do not know. I get the same information here that the citizens would get if they were on Facebook [or] Moultrie Observer.”
Residents should be mindful of when to call 911. The director said emergencies are different for everyone but to mainly call if you require the assistance of the police – the Moultrie Police Department or the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office — or a fire department or emergency medical services. Otherwise, people should use the non-emergency line at 229-616-7470.