Aug 5, 2010 By Herald Standard Staff 1 min read

Fayette County 911 officials scrambled to maintain emergency call service for area residents after the generator at the 911 Center shut down early today forcing the call center staff to temporarily set up shop at a location in Dunbar Township. 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.

“The power went down and our generator kicked in so we were okay,” Shipley said, noting that he immediately notified Allegheny Power of the outage.

Throughout the night Shipley said the call center remained fully operational but said that a power surge around 7:30 a.m. today caused the generator to falter and left 911 dispatchers unable to field emergency calls.

“We then transferred our calls to the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency (FCEMA) where we set up this operation to field incoming emergency calls,” Shipley said, noting that in the meantime, all police calls were being routed through the state police barracks and then dispatched to the corresponding municipal police departments.

For additional information regarding the outage and for further updates, see Josh Krysak’s story in tomorrow’s Herald-Standard or check www.heraldstandard.com later today.