An early morning power outage at Erie County’s 911 center shuttered 911 calls for more than fours until power was restored — although calls were re-routed to an alternate number and eventually answered.

According to Erie County Emergency Services, following the 3:30 a.m. outate, “the 911 system reacted as intended and the 911 calls were rolled over to an alternate PSAP-Public Safety Answering Point.”

Erie County enacted a limited activation of their Emergency Operations Center, alerted Emergency Services staff and relocated essential 911 personnel there.

The power outage also affected some elements of the county’s integrated radio dispatch system for fire, police and EMS. All PSAPs and Dispatch Centers were notified and alternate communications channels were identified and activated as appropriate. Several affected volunteer fire departments were proactive and staffed their fire stations.

Power has been since restored in the 911 Center, much of the radio communications have been restored and the 911 telephone system was transfered back to normal operation.

According to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a cooling system failure led to the shutdown. Poloncarz had posted alternate emergency phone numbers on his Twitter during the outage.



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