Navigating 100% Increase in Call Volume During Freak Storm
February 28, 2023 by Kate Nadolski
In early November of 2022, dispatchers with Snohomish County 911, located just north of Seattle, received a standardized weather advisory notification that a mild windstorm was anticipated to hit a distant part of their general area.
Typically, weather advisory alerts are not much of concern, and first responders and the community wait for an official weather warning to partake in safety measures. However, a few hours later, the supposed mild windstorm, changed directions and strengthened with no warning.
Operations Manager Derek Wilson with Snohomish County 911 was on call that night. He said he grew concerned, knowing the center was staffed as normal for the evening, all while a massive windstorm was starting to pick up outside.
“We went from a quiet night to a storm exploding outside around us,” Wilson said. The wind generated by the storm was so strong it damaged a nearby hospital helicopter landing pad explicitly designed for harsh weather conditions.
Meanwhile, operations inside Snohomish County 911 were becoming intense, with thousands of emergency calls flooding in but no extra help. To keep the community safe, dispatchers leaned on their expert training and technology — specifically, their Enterprise CAD (computer aided dispatch) solution. "This storm became a very serious situation quickly," Wilson said. "Between 5 p.m. the night of the storm and 7 a.m. the next morning, we had more than 2,500 calls for service entered into our CAD system, and 2,000 of those calls were determined to be unique, meaning none of them were duplicated or canceled."
To provide context on the gravity of this call volume increase, in the same time window on a similar Friday in November one year before the storm, Snohomish County dispatchers received 1,200 calls for service, with 900 of those being unique. The call volume the night of the storm and into the weekend as residents dealt with the aftereffects became record-shattering as dispatchers answered more than 5,000 calls for help.
Wilson said dispatchers relied on their Enterprise CAD solution to work through the massive call volume, and certain features within the solution proved to be extra advantageous.
“With the integrated mapping capability in Enterprise CAD, the situational awareness aspect from first responders was greatly improved,” Wilson said. “Having maps integrated within CAD allowed dispatchers to see where calls were coming from and provided them with the ability to send that mission-critical information to first responders heading to the scene.” In addition, Wilson credits the dispatchers for utilizing associated call assistance within the solution, which helped identify duplicate calls for service and avoid entering multiple calls for the same issue.
“Enterprise CAD allows dispatchers and first responders to see the geographical location of incoming calls and incidents in real-time, helping them determine which calls were duplicates or multiple reports of the same emergency,” Wilson said. “This was a very challenging situation for our dispatchers, but we got through it as best as we could.”
Snohomish County 911 provided their community with the necessary support and lifesaving service during this dangerous storm.