MOUNT VERNON — A June storm ravaged Northeast and Central Ohio, bringing down several trees, and causing power outages rippling throughout Knox County.
Roughly 480 Knox County residents called 911 during the storm, either reporting a downed line, requesting a checkup on a family member or via regular emergency calls.
When a tornado struck Knox County. Not a single tornado siren was activated.
This was due to the influx of calls Knox County 911 dispatchers were receiving throughout the storm. The five dispatchers working the phones and taking calls weren’t able to turn on the tornado sirens due to 911 calls and tornado warning system sirens operating on the same radio frequency line, 911 Director Laura Webster told Knox Pages.
A year and a half ago, Webster and Knox County Emergency Management Director Mark Maxwell discussed fixing this problem. However, the switch to the new radio system MARCS was delayed because it was deemed unreliable in its infancy.
Thus the solution Webster chose was moving emergency calls to MARCS and issuing outdoor warning signals to the dispatch system used previously.
MARCS will be implemented Aug. 8, the director added.
“We wanted to shorten the time of what EMS runs were,” Webster said. “We have a house fire or incident that requires aid, the dispatcher was doing double the work and double the time on the radio.”
This requires little work from EMS, dispatchers and folks calling 911, Webster said, noting it’s a “pretty minimal” change.
“The issue was getting fire and EMS to the calls that were coming out — so now it won’t happen on the same radio channel,” she said. “We can send out the outdoor warning and dispatch at the same time.
“Dispatch fire and EMS, those tones go out over the same frequency and sirens.”
From January through June, 19,723 calls for service were made. Webster believes calls will continue to climb throughout the year and surpass 2021.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, 911 calls were down. Webster said the decrease of calls due to the COVID-19 lockdowns were because folks were staying in there homes during quarantine.
A University of Buffalo research team found that EMS activations decreased by 26.1% over a six-week period beginning in early March 2020, according to the study.
She also believes the change will have a drastic impact in Knox County, because dispatchers won’t have to choose to take calls or activate tornado sirens.
“This will definitely improve the next time we have something like this,” she said. “(We’ll) be confident we’ll be able to do both.”
