NEWS
MONTGOMERY COUNTY OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
COURT HOUSE, NORRISTOWN, PA., BOX 311, 19404-0311
PHONE (610) 278-3061 FAX 278-5943
COMMISSIONERS:
THOMAS JAY ELLIS, ESQ. Chairman, JAMES R. MATTHEWS , RUTH S. DAMSKER
RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY 11/17/06 PR#06-52
SERVICE INTERRUPTION TO MONTGOMERY COUNTY 911
EAGLEVILLE — Phone service was interrupted to the Montgomery County 911 Emergency Dispatch Call Center Friday morning.
As of 1:50 p.m., Verizon indicated the problem was caused by a T-3 Carrier Line failure at the Hatboro Central Station.
Staff at the 911 Center began to notice problems occurring with incoming calls at 9:47 a.m. Technicians were on the phone with Verizon at 10:02 a.m. when Verizon notified them that all trunk lines to the 911 Center were down.
The emergency backup 911 system at the County’s Public Safety Training Campus in Conshohocken was operational at 10:18 and began taking calls.
It became apparent, however, that calls still were not coming in properly from all sections of the County. An Emergency Alert System message was sent out to all broadcast outlets in the region providing a 10-digit number for people to call if they could not get through on 911.
Call service was restored to the 911 Center at 11:25 a.m.
Verizon then advised Public Safety officials that, in fact, all trunk lines to the 911 Center had not been lost and their control office indicates that no emergency calls were missed.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Verizon indicated they had identified the problem as a T-3 line at the Hatboro Central Station. Half of the calls to Montgomery County’s 911 Center are routed through the Hatboro Station and the other half through Phoenixville Central Station.
Montgomery County will keep a skeletal crew at the backup center until it is clear that the problems have been fixed.
The disaster plan, known as Code Red, worked as designed. We had a total response to the back up center of 27 personnel from all of our divisions, including 9 off-duty personnel who responded to the activation.
