Power failure knocks out Chicago’s 911 call center
The City of Chicago lost its 911 emergency call center for about one hour recently due to a power failure, the
Chicago Sun-Times
reported. Calls were rerouted to the city’s 311 Center, but “a handful of calls were missed,” according to a spokeswoman for the 911 Center. One of the calls that was missed was a call from a health-care facility “to report a man who threatened to kill agency workers,” the paper said. (The threat wasn’t carried out, according to the story.) Callers that did get through to the 311 center encountered delays, because “there are fewer call takers at 311 than at 911,” Ron Huberman, 911 Center director told the paper. Huberman also said conditions were near normal about an hour after the changeover to the 311 Center, once 911 Center call takers and dispatchers were redeployed. At that point, calls were being answered within three rings instead of the normal one ring, the paper reported. Chicago’s 911 Center handles about 18,000 calls per day, with about 70 calls coming in the first few minutes after the power outage, the
Sun-Times
said.