Emergency dispatchers have busy day during storm

By Milo Dailey, Butte County Post | Sunday, November 09, 2008

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

BELLE FOURCHE -- They sounded cool on the phone, but Butte County dispatchers worried whether a caller asking about road conditions could block the line for frighteningly real emergencies.

"This is the busiest shift I've ever seen," Liz Herman told three visiting Butte County commissioners. Herman has been dispatching since 1979.

Dispatch director Dallas Ford sat at her four-screen computer console also fielding calls. Nearby, a piece of chicken waited for enough of a break for her to take another bite.

Ford said she couldn't believe how people call the emergency number to ask questions like, "When is the wind going to go down?"

Back to pressing matters, Ford directed two emergency crews to life-threatening situations at homes isolated by blizzard conditions that extended throughout the county and beyond.

Butte County Emergency Management Director Scott Jensen moved between his office across the hall and a chair behind one of the two dispatch consoles.

He was trying to shuffle relatively meager resources to protect lives -- and calm the frustration of people who had power, heat, water and plenty of food who wanted their roads cleared so they could get to town.

He also was working with the South Dakota National Guard in Rapid City to arrange a helicopter evacuation of people stranded by huge, hard-packed drifts on U.S. Highway 212 east of Newell.

Most had been stranded since Wednesday night.

If plows couldn't get through to them by Friday night, he hoped an air evacuation might be possible. National Guard ground crews couldn't be in Butte County because they hadn't yet opened Interstate 90 between Rapid City and the Northern Hills.

The wind howled and there were other emergency calls to respond to. Ford's chicken waited.

Most farmers and ranchers were prepared for a blizzard. There remained residents outside town who needed medical supplies or had not been prepared for the blizzard or fast-developing situations, such as a woman in the last stages of pregnancy.

Belle Fourche missed the worst of the blizzard that began late Wednesday, then roared with 60 to 70 mile per hour winds Thursday.

By Friday, snowplows at best were making about one mile an hour through huge drifts to rescue stranded motorists -- including some out-of-state hunters in big pickups who had been told at 6 p.m. Thursday in Faith to stay there and off the roads.

Dispatchers were sending crews for rescues only.

Ford told one caller shortly after noon to not even to think about travel: "We're not going to be able to send anybody to get you if you go."

She went back to answering phones that were constantly ringing.

Jensen said what Ford didn't have time to mention in the few seconds between calls. People should call 511 for road reports or 211 for non-emergency help information. The 911 lines are for emergencies only.

Ford was directing responders to a snow-buried location where a person badly needed oxygen.

Belle Fourche firefighters were part of rescue efforts throughout the county Thursday and Friday, Jensen said.

"They have been a life saver," Jensen said.

The firefighters helped with the rescue of a Fruitdale area woman reportedly 8-1/2 months pregnant; they also helped open a shelter in Nisland.

"They're doing all this voluntarily," Jensen said. "It's just awesome."

Jensen said Butte County dispatchers were working hard to lessen fears of some people stranded since Wednesday night by calling back when the phone lines were open.

"They are concerned about those people stranded out there on the highway," he said. "It's like their own family."