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| Screen capture of Montgomery County press release regarding 911 outage shows headline with "Outrage" Freudian slip |
"During the two hours of interrupted service, alternative plans to receive and dispatch emergency plans were put into operation. Notification to the public was made through public safety social media and through the County’s Alert Montgomery emergency alert system."
But that claim is simply not true.
According to the County's own account, the outage lasted from 11:10 PM Sunday night to 1:09 AM Monday morning.
The first Alert Montgomery notifications were not sent out until 1:25 AM and 1:26 AM, according to timestamps of two Alert Montgomery subscribers. By that time, the outage was over. The reality was, the only notification during the outage period was coming from police and fire officials' social media accounts.
In contrast to apologists for County elected officials, County Executive Ike Leggett has correctly called for a full investigation of the failure. "County residents must be able to count on a prompt response to emergencies,” Leggett said in a later statement Monday.
Two people for whom fire and rescue services were sought during the outage died, the County has confirmed. One was a 40-year-old resident of the Twinbrook community in Rockville, and the second was a 91-year-old resident of Olney.
The point here is that there was a secondary communication failure Sunday night, and Alert Montgomery failed to notify the public of this dangerous 911 outage. That should be investigated alongside the main 911 failure.
51 comments:
How many people use Alert Montgomery?
This also points out an issue of the balkanization of communication. If 911 does not work would you call the operator? Different operators at multiple phone companies could be on the other side of the country. Call the police or fire station? -- where do I find the number? How many people have phone books these days? Look it up on line?
It was reported that the family of one those who died tried to call 911 for an hour and got only busy signals. They, sadly, were at a loss of any alternative. I remember fridge magnets distributed at one time with the number of local police and fire stations; perhaps someone should begin this practice again.
Over the past five years eight cities have experienced 911 failures in the U.S. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Bethlehem, PA, Portland and Multnomah County, OR, are the most recent examples. The majority of these failures were attributable to the technology. In May of 2011, San Francisco's CAD system went down for more than 24 hours because of server problems. Dispatchers had to call emergency responders by radio, and officers had to write down pertinent information using a pen and paper, instead of having it automatically appear on patrol car laptops.
Unfortunately, many "failed" EMS systems are measured by recent events, no matter how successful they may have been in the past. Finances, out-of-date technology, or a significant high-profile event can all trigger a system to be declared as "failed." In some cases, a combination of these factors can create a perfect storm (what can be called a "critical change trigger point") that ultimately yields a replacement of the existing system or incumbent provider.
The MoCo system appears to be recent, with a redundant backup, and still a failure occurred, but to play the blame game here benefits no one, and only serves to reveal the short-comings of the author.
Will Dyer ever tell his readers how he learned of the outage?
Dyer claimed yesterday: "The failure of Montgomery County's 911 emergency system last night and early this morning is another indication that infrastructure is not keeping pace with residential growth... This is the latest example of County infrastructure not keeping up with rapid residential development countywide."
Residential growth had nothing to do with this 911 outage.
"In contrast to apologists for County elected officials, County Executive Ike Leggett has correctly called for a full investigation of the failure."
Who has said, or even suggested, that the failure does not need to be investigated?
Good to know that the Fuehrer of the MoCo Machine is not an "apologist" for it.
36 hours after the event, Dyer can't be bothered to describe the actual mechanical failure that caused the 911 system to go down.
Some "journalist".
Did Karr have a role in the design of the facility? Enquiring Bethesd(i)ans want to know!
my fingers smell like cheese. warm stinky conspiracy cheese!
BREAKING NEWS
MoCo Machine Police Find Hans Riemer Voodoo Doll Near Failed A/C Condenser in 911 Center
Robert, how as a county council member would you have prevented this from happening?
Still waiting for Dyer to tell his readers how he found out that the system was down yesterday morning.
#DodgingDyer
11:24 AM A better communication system could be implemented by Dyer. His reporting revealed that word wasn't getting out about 911 not working.
If it was a facilities problem, better facilities for 911 and first responders.
The list goes on...
Leventhal's response to the investigation into the failure that caused two citizens to die: "What possible difference does it make now?"
Remember when the county was governed by adults?
@12:45 I asked Dyer, not his shill. If he want to be seen as a legitimate candidate, he needs to present coherent plans and an agenda. Not ranting conspiracy theories and blogging about how the sky is always falling.
12:47 PM This is a news report.
Only in MoCo, where the council continues to be coddled by the legacy media, does asking a few tough questions mean you're spouting conspiracy theories.
11:33AM Why? What difference does it make? Did YOU tell him about it and you want him to mention your name?
@ 2:19 PM - No, you silly squawking parrot. Dyer is wringing his hands over how Alert Montgomery supposedly didn't issue notification of 911 being down, yet somehow Dyer found out about it in the middle of the night. Well, how did he?
@ 12:45 PM -
"A better communication system could be implemented by Dyer."
Single-handedly, by someone who has absolutely no relevant experience?
"Remember when the county was governed by adults?"
Yeah, like electing Robert Dyer is going to increase the maturity level of the Council.
"Leventhal's response to the investigation into the failure that caused two citizens to die: 'What possible difference does it make now?'"
It's kind of hard to take you seriously if you're going to keep fabricating quotes.
12:59 PM -
"Only in MoCo, where the council continues to be coddled by the legacy media, does asking a few tough questions mean you're spouting conspiracy theories."
Again, it's kind of hard to take you seriously.
You bet Dyer would raise the maturity level. Mr. Leventhal doesn't know what civility is.
7:50: It had everything to do with the outage. The cost of new development, and actions of the Council, have shortchanged the basic functions and services we expect from government. The infrastructure - whether it's a computer or an AC unit - hasn't been maintained.
7:57: I broke the story, and I didn't just take a County press release at face value. You're still "Dumass material all the way."
6:57: Do you realize that your determination to exonerate our elected officials in every fiasco, even when the results are literally fatal as in this case with 2 deaths, makes you sound like you are a cult member defending your leader?
"To hold the people responsible for deaths responsible benefits no one, and only serves to reveal the shortcomings of the author." WTF?
7:52: You did. The talking point of you and the handful of other yes men around the Council was "it was just an AC unit. Nothing to see here. Move along, folks."
In reality, it was a fatal and catastrophic failure, and Leggett is correct that every aspect of this needs to be investigated.
2:44: Not from Alert Montgomery, that's for sure! In what other scenarios where the public is in danger could Alert Montgomery fail to notify them, and why? That's what needs to also be investigated. And why didn't the outage trigger alarms and an alert message right away? Sounds like an old, low-tech system.
"Not from Alert Montgomery, that's for sure!"
So, who told you?
#DodgingDyer
"To hold the people responsible for deaths responsible benefits no one, and only serves to reveal the shortcomings of the author." WTF?"
"Deaths responsible"? Not only can you not quote your reader correctly, but you cannot even type your straw-man version of his comment correctly.
"when the results are literally fatal as in this case with 2 deaths"
Once again, the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.
9:51: You're obviously unaware that family members of one of the patients who died could not get in touch with fire and rescue for an extended period. What kind of sicko thinks that's a good and justified outcome as long as the Council emerges unscathed from this latest scandal? Sick!
This outage of 911 service was troubling and sad for 40-year-old Marlon Somarriba, who likely would have benefited from earlier medical intervention.
However, to blame as does Dyer "rapid residential development" for this outage is an outrageous falsehood: "The cost of new development, and actions of the Council, have shortchanged the basic functions and services we expect from government. The infrastructure - whether it's a computer or an AC unit - hasn't been maintained.
First, the County does not own the 911 system, Verizon does. "Verizon is the main phone company here in Maryland," Ferretti said. "They own the entire infrastructure to provide our on-site 911 systems." (Bill Ferretti, deputy director of the Montgomery County 911 Emergency Communications Center, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/confusion-led-to-delay-in-notifying-public-of-911-outage-in-montgomery/article/72345 )
Second, the outage occurred during an upgrade to the system, not devlopment inspired neglect of the 911 system.
“Over the last several weeks, we’ve been operating out of the alternate in order to complete a much-needed upgrade of our primary communication systems, our phone systems. That work began several weeks ago and will hopefully complete in the next couple of weeks,” said Stoddard. “We were down one level of redundancy because of the upgrade.”
That meant the County did not have a secondary site at the time of the outage, he said. (Dr. Earl Stoddard, the director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/newsx/local/item/3803-our-worst-fear )
Finally, the timeline and appropriate use of Alert Montgomery as represented by Dyer is misrepresented. "Only about a quarter of County residents can receive texts or emails from Alert Montgomery, said Stoddard, noting the number is about 255,000.
Stoddard said he was told to notify the public through Alert Montgomery at some point after midnight and the emergency text and emails from Alert Montgomery came out about 20 minutes later.
He said it took about 10 to 12 minutes for every recipient to receive those alerts.
“We have a long, hard amount of work to do to get people registered into our system,” said Stoddard."
(To sign up for Alert Montgomery go to: https://alert.montgomerycountymd.gov/index )
3:38: Again, the statement about the alerts quoted here is misleading. "Some point after midnight." I think an investigator would want to nail down the exact time. The fact is that the alerts didn't go out until well after 1:00 AM, assuming there is a lag time of 10 to 12 minutes for receipt (they were received around 1:25 AM; the outage was already over by 1:09 AM).
I too would encourage people to sign up, but if the 911 system going down doesn't alert authorities it has done so, and the County can't inform the public via reasonable means (such as Alert Montgomery and social media [is it safe to assume reverse 911 goes down when the regular 911 does?]).
If Stoddard was truly notified after midnight, why did the alerts not go out until an hour later?
Much like the Silver Spring Transit Center, elected officials have oversight authority. Did no one ever inquire about backups and contingencies of critical systems like this? Or were they too busy banning styrofoam and making appearances on Spanish language radio programs designed to promote them for reelection?
If I were on the Council, these basic functions would be the first thing that would be on my mind, not releasing a statement on U.S. defense spending.
How did Dyer learn that the system was down?
#DodgingDyer
@ 3:38 AM - Looks like the "old legacy print media" is doing a much better job than Robert Dyer in reporting what actually happened.
5:59: Nope, they didn't even report it until after I broke the story. I broke the story. Aside from WTOP and the Post, which reported after me, the rest didn't even report it until the next day. And NO OUTLET besides me has pointed out the failure of the Alert Montgomery system, and the attempt to sweep that under the rug. Wake up, man.
Big story. Folks died because of the failure.
@ 6:45 AM - Yes, it's shocking that Robert Dyer hasn't had any breaking news on this story in nearly two days.
Leventhal will pat the legacy media on the head, give em a retweet and they'll submit. #lapdogs
Meanwhile, Dyer is still covering this epic failure by government.
@7:38 AM -- It is an epic failure by Verizon.
Still waiting for Dyer to explain to his readers how he first learned about the failure of the 911 system.
7:12: This report was published yesterday. You're still "Dumass material all the way." I'm still the only outlet to report the timeline and failure of the Alert Montgomery system during the 911 outage. Not even the Post has reported on that.
7:52: The Council has oversight of the 911 system. You mean they never bothered to ensure there was backup? Throw the bums out! Two County residents died as a result of the Council's incompetence and inability to deliver the most basic services we elect them to provide. Shameful.
8:11 Good point. Why wasn't Alert Montgomery working?
We're seeing a lot of unanswered questions. Unacceptable for one of Maryland's "big counties".
Imagine if 911 went down for hours in DC or any major city and residents died?
There would be calls for accountability and for heads to roll.
The lapdog legacy media is compliant as usual. Good thing Dyer is covering this tragic failure by government.
8:15: Yeah, and also, aside from me, those Alert Montgomery questions aren't even being asked yet.
"THE PEOPLE ARE IN THE BIG COUNTIES!!!" - George Leventhal, November 2014
8:17: Just the latest - but deadliest - failure of the County Council to deliver on the most basic functions of government. Can you "make the trains run on time" - provide school and road infrastructure for the development approved, plow snow, enforce sidewalk laws, etc. 911 is as basic as it gets, kind of like the Bethesda post office debacle.
#DyerTalkingToHimselfAgain
Robert Dyer has exactly what Montgomery County's leadership needs - 20/20 hindsight!
@ 8:17 AM - "Imagine if 911 went down for hours in DC or any major city and residents died?"
Somehow you completely missed this comment at 6:57 AM:
"Over the past five years eight cities have experienced 911 failures in the U.S. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Bethlehem, PA, Portland and Multnomah County, OR, are the most recent examples...In May of 2011, San Francisco's CAD system went down for more than 24 hours because of server problems."
We need folks like Mr. Leventhal to be term limited out of here. The man is reckless, out of control and dangerous at this point.
@ 7:56 PM - I'm sorry that the people of Montgomery County don't share your obsessive hatred of our elected leaders who defeated Robert Dyer in two elections.
And it's not true that the people of Montgomery County are incapable of unelecting politicians who do not serve their interests:
"The last Republican serving on the Montgomery County Council, Howard A. Denis of District 1 (Potomac/Bethesda), was defeated in 2006. The board has since been all-Democratic."
9:41: Are you sure? It sounds like term limits are going to pass and throw those "elected leaders who defeated Robert Dyer" out on the street. Not to mention voter turnout is at an all-time low in recent elections; hardly a representative sample of the majority was voting those years.
Dyer @ 10:45 PM - Didn't you criticize supporters of the New Westbard for using that exact same argument about a "silent majority"?
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