storms in dirt town, dash cam

[SethO]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFz6IdNu73w

about 5 min it gets buck.I was dispatching in this mess. Lightening hit 50 feet from the law enforcement center I was in.

the power went out and the generators kicked on except for the lighting strike blew the positive posts out and then it went from 3 working dispatch stations to 2 to one before they came back up I easily took 200 calls in a hour and a half. no deaths in our county but some serious damage.

Busiest night of my dispatching career.

[SethO]

489704897148972

straight line 80+ mph winds , was serious damage around

[NancysToy]

:yikes: Had one here a year ago with 100+ straight-line winds. No fun! Good job holding down the fort.

[bruiser]

Seems like this is the summer for very severe storms. Still have over 800,000 w/o power on the east coast. Can honestly say, been there done that and didn't want the T shirt.

[SpyderAnn01]

That was a lot of rain. What amazes me is that there are that many goofballs out driving in it. I didn't think Dirt Town had that many people. Way to keep the peace Seth.

[bruiser]

Seth, where is Dirt Town in relation tto Minneapolis (or as some of us in the company say Minnihopless)?

[SethO]

Seth, where is Dirt Town in relation tto Minneapolis (or as some of us in the company say Minnihopless)?


its bemidji, 250 miles north of the cities.

[SethO]

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151872270060293

don't know if this video can be seen by no FB people but it is great footage of the storm

[vampyregirl]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFz6IdNu73w

about 5 min it gets buck.I was dispatching in this mess. Lightening hit 50 feet from the law enforcement center I was in.

the power went out and the generators kicked on except for the lighting strike blew the positive posts out and then it went from 3 working dispatch stations to 2 to one before they came back up I easily took 200 calls in a hour and a half. no deaths in our county but some serious damage.

Busiest night of my dispatching career.


Been there, done that!!!!

Our 911 center got hit by lightning some years ago! Big ol' POP in the headset!!! I think we took almost 400 calls in a 90 min period during that particular storm!!

Our afternoon shift had to deal with a storm that moved through the south part of Toledo yesterday. I'm glad I work day shift!!!! We still had to order portable stop signs this morning, though!!!! People seem to turn stoooooopid when the power goes out.......

Today afternoons will be dealing with open fire hydrants everywhere. It's 99 degrees right now....... I started the open hydrant list before I left...... :gaah:

[SethO]

Been there, done that!!!!

Our 911 center got hit by lightning some years ago! Big ol' POP in the headset!!! I think we took almost 400 calls in a 90 min period during that particular storm!!

Our afternoon shift had to deal with a storm that moved through the south part of Toledo yesterday. I'm glad I work day shift!!!! We still had to order portable stop signs this morning, though!!!! People seem to turn stoooooopid when the power goes out.......

Today afternoons will be dealing with open fire hydrants everywhere. It's 99 degrees right now....... I started the open hydrant list before I left...... :gaah:


How many dispatchers do you have at one time working? you guys have to release the water thru the hydrants?

[bruiser]

[QUOTE=SethO;479055]its bemidji, 250 miles north of the cities.[/QUOTE

Thanks.

[vampyregirl]

How many dispatchers do you have at one time working? you guys have to release the water thru the hydrants?

We have 4 dispatchers working at all times. 2 police radio channels (our city is divided into North and South then broken down further than that into sectors). I suspect you have to take the 911 calls AND dispatch at the same time. We don't. Our call volume is really high. We have at least 5 911 calltakers on the phone 24hrs a day. They put in the calls, the call comes to the dispatch terminals, then the police crews gets sent. Fire and EMS have their own dispatchers.

I commend anyone that has to take the calls AND dispatch them at the same time!!!!! Because we get so many calls, that's not even feasible here!!! Most of our outlying areas (Northwood, Perrysburg, Sylvania, Oregon) take the calls and dispatch at the same time. We have more calls in a 1 month period than all of those areas combined. :yikes:

As for the fire hydrants..... the citizens grab wrenches when it gets hot and open them up for everyone play in!!!! Naturally, that causes a HUGE drop in water pressure in that area. We get 911 calls for open hydrants, then have to inform the water dept. so they can send someone out to shut them off. There have probably been quite a few houses burn down because of this..... They make some type of hydrant "lock" that requires a special tool to open, but the leaders of this city don't think it's that much of a problem. Um, yeah, 'cuz it's not a drain on manpower to go around shutting them off every day..... Sigh.....

[SethO]

We have 4 dispatchers working at all times. 2 police radio channels (our city is divided into North and South then broken down further than that into sectors). I suspect you have to take the 911 calls AND dispatch at the same time. We don't. Our call volume is really high. We have at least 5 911 calltakers on the phone 24hrs a day. They put in the calls, the call comes to the dispatch terminals, then the police crews gets sent. Fire and EMS have their own dispatchers.

I commend anyone that has to take the calls AND dispatch them at the same time!!!!! Because we get so many calls, that's not even feasible here!!! Most of our outlying areas (Northwood, Perrysburg, Sylvania, Oregon) take the calls and dispatch at the same time. We have more calls in a 1 month period than all of those areas combined. :yikes:

As for the fire hydrants..... the citizens grab wrenches when it gets hot and open them up for everyone play in!!!! Naturally, that causes a HUGE drop in water pressure in that area. We get 911 calls for open hydrants, then have to inform the water dept. so they can send someone out to shut them off. There have probably been quite a few houses burn down because of this..... They make some type of hydrant "lock" that requires a special tool to open, but the leaders of this city don't think it's that much of a problem. Um, yeah, 'cuz it's not a drain on manpower to go around shutting them off every day..... Sigh.....

thats crazy to me. We have three stations and a half station and we dispatch for fire, ems, 1st responders, any staties that help out in our area, the sheriffs dept,Leech lake tribal PD, Sometimes RD PD(which is on a closed reservation in the middle of beltrami co), the bemidji PD and blackduck PD. Tonight for instance we just have me and little phil working. Its been buck nasty here because of the storms, the 4th of july and the heat. I think it would be very strange to me to give a call to someone else or take a call from someone else but if you are big enough then I suppose its necessary. how many people live your biggest town? dirt town is only 12k but there is much more in the outlying areas. Bemidji PD has about 5 officers on a shift too.

[vampyregirl]

thats crazy to me. We have three stations and a half station and we dispatch for fire, ems, 1st responders, any staties that help out in our area, the sheriffs dept,Leech lake tribal PD, Sometimes RD PD(which is on a closed reservation in the middle of beltrami co), the bemidji PD and blackduck PD. Tonight for instance we just have me and little phil working. Its been buck nasty here because of the storms, the 4th of july and the heat. I think it would be very strange to me to give a call to someone else or take a call from someone else but if you are big enough then I suppose its necessary. how many people live your biggest town? dirt town is only 12k but there is much more in the outlying areas. Bemidji PD has about 5 officers on a shift too.

Our population in Toledo, OH is roughly 290,000..... Not sure about the outlying areas, but I bet they all combined add up to less than that--probably less than 100,000 to be honest!! When we get a huge storm that is causing damage, you can't even keep up with the 911 calls coming in!! That's not to mention the calls waiting for police crews!!! There would be no way for us to keep up if we had to do it all. Our police department is woefully understaffed, and depending on the volume of calls, we have folks that wait for hours and hours for a crew. We have a roughly 1.5 officers for every 1,000 citizens ratio. It's horrible!!!

Today I was the South channel dispatcher. We have 2 roll calls per shift. I had a total of 19 police officers (some in 1 man cars, some in 2 man cars) for one half of our city. If people here really knew those numbers and I showed them a map of where these officers patrolled....they'd mess their pants! When I left, there were only 2 calls waiting for service, and no crews in service to send on the calls!!! That was actually a good day!!!

It's just crazy stuff!!