?Print By Carla Branch
alexandrianews.org
On June 29, a derecho howled its way through the Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, leaving a path of destruction and millions without power. Emergency 911 systems in Prince William, Fairfax and Arlington Counties sustained significant outages but Alexandria?s system continued to function, providing assistance to its neighbors.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration describes a derecho as ?a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath. As a result, the term "straight-line wind damage" sometimes is used to describe derecho damage. By definition, if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles (about 400 kilometers) and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) or greater along most of its length, then the event may be classified as a derecho.?
The derecho began at around 10:00 p.m. and had exited the DC metropolitan area by midnight. From 10:30 p.m. on June 29, to 6:00 a.m. on July 2, Alexandria?s Emergency Communications Center received 4501 emergency and non-emergency calls compared to 1790 calls received during the same time period the previous week, an increase of ?about 250%. The call center took 714 911 calls between 10:30 p.m. on June 29, and 6:00 a.m. on July 2, compared to 483 during the same time period the previous week, an increase of 145%. Alexandria?s call takers relayed approximately 90 calls via the radio system to Fairfax and Arlingotn Counties between June 29 and July 2, but there is no breakdown as to what type of calls these were.
Why did Alexandria?s call center continue to function? ?When we moved to the new Center, we built in a lot of redundancy,? said Joanne Munroe, Alexandria?s Director of Emergency Communications. ?We have 26 trunk lines coming from three different Verizon Central Offices. If one Central Office loses power, we have lines coming from two others.
?We did lose about 50% of our call capacity but were still able to handle the call volume. We can have as many as 11 people taking calls at any given time and, of course, we respond to 911 calls first,? Munroe said.
Emergency call takers must pass a required Virginia State Dispatch course and must also undergo a local training. ?After training, they work under the supervision of a senior call taker for some time before they are permitted to take calls on their own,? Munroe said.
Munroe was pleased with the system?s reliability. ?We planned very carefully so that we could respond to just this type of emergency and the system performed very well,? she said.
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