Fayette 911 back in service
The Fayette County 911 center is back online today after officials scrambled to maintain emergency call service for area residents after the generator at the center in Uniontown shut down early Thursday, forcing the call center staff to temporarily set up shop at a location in Dunbar Township. Electricity was restored to the center and all 911 lines were successfully rerouted back to the Uniontown center around 5:45 p.m. Thursday, according to Fayette County 911 spokeswoman Susan Kozak-Griffith.
Roy Shipley Jr., director of the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency, said that the 911 Center lost power around 7 p.m. Wednesday after wicked weather swept across the district.
Throughout the night Wednesday Shipley said the call center located in the Fayette County Public Safety Building remained fully operational but said that a power surge around 7:30 a.m. Thursday caused the generator to falter and left 911 dispatchers unable to field emergency calls.
Shipley said the fast-moving storm caused flash flooding in some areas and said that the center logged nearly 300 calls in a three-hour span from 5 to 8 p.m. at the height of the storm.
“We normally log between 150 and 200 calls for an average eight-hour shift evening shift,” Shipley said, adding that as storm damage reports increased and phone lines remains jammed, 911 officials continued to call in support staff throughout the night.
He said that downed trees and power lines were reported across the county and said that the hardest hit areas seemed to be the Uniontown-to-Brownsville corridor, with several homes sustaining wind and storm damage and multiple fires associated with lightning strikes were reported.
Electric services remains patchy across the county, with as many as 12,000 customers still without electricity.
It will take until Saturday to fully restore power to the county, according to the utility company’s Web site.