Help is just a telephone call away

SC 911 call service will respond ASAP

By Aidan Dusenbury-Dalto | Manor Ink

North Branch, NY – One of the most important phone calls you may ever make could be an urgent plea for emergency help by dialing 911. That number can be a lifeline when illness or injury strike.

But it wasn’t always so. Sullivan County only instituted the 911 service in 2002, assigning street numbers to the numerous unnumbered homes throughout the county so that emergency responders could find the callers. When callers dial 911, their street address along with the call is sent via the caller’s phone service to the county’s 911 Call Center in Mongaup Valley. There it is answered by an operator who notes the address of the call.

Manor Ink visited the county’s 911 Call Center located at the Sullivan County Airport to learn about this crucial facility and what it does.

The center’s 911 Coordinator is Alex Rau. He walked this reporter through the many crucial local services handled there, such as police, EMS and fire department calls. He explained that the 911 operators answer each call and send out first responders, according to the nature of the calls they receive.

Rau explained about the many different emergency units the Call Center can reach. “When it comes to dispatch, we have 40 fire departments and 15 ambulance cores, and we send them out according to the information provided to us.” On average, the Call Center gets from 100 to 200 calls per day, around 20 of which are accidental.

Because Gov. Kathy Hochul had declared a state of emergency due to a forecasted Nor’easter on the day of the Ink’s visit, Rau was asked about any special changes or preparations the Call Center might have to make in preparation for a greater call volume.

“Before anything such as a state of emergency or big snow storm, the Call Center shifts to having more staff,” he said. “We can go from having no callers to having five lines light up in less than two minutes.”

Rau also mentioned one important point regarding calls from smart phones as well as from land lines. If you ever accidentally call 911 by pressing the wrong button or dial the wrong number, it’s recommended you stay on the line and don’t hang up. It’s important to verify your information and let the responding operator know the call was accidental. The majority of these calls are from SOS features on Apple and Android smartphones. Disabling that feature can help 911 staff focus on actual emergencies.

Another tip that Rau shared was a request from local emergency responders. They would like every resident to remember to make sure their home or road is properly marked and accessible. Emergency vehicles have no way of ascertaining whether an unmarked home is the caller’s correct location, and blocked or snow-covered driveways make access to a property difficult if not impossible.

It might also be a good idea to keep a list of emergency numbers next to your phone at home, or stored in your cell phone’s address book. You never know when you might need assistance from 911.