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Thursday, October 19, 2000
Flood keeps Abilene dispatchers
on phone
Reporter-News Staff Report
On an average day, dispatchers
for the Abilene Police and Fire Departments handle roughly 600
calls.
On Tuesday, when high waters
from a downpour took the city by surprise, that number skyrocketed
to 900.
“We had an additional three
dispatchers called in,” said communications supervisor Julie
Barnett.
Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday,
the fire department handled 76 incidents. Most of those calls
were for rescuing motorists who had stranded their car in the
water, Barnett said.
Firefighters also did the occasional
residential rescue when people were trapped in their homes by
the water.
The rest of the calls were for
more typical incidents — medical emergencies and structure
fires, Barnett said.
Things quieted down considerably
after 4 p.m., although firefighters did do one more vehicle water
rescue.
Police took care of calls from
stranded motorists who didn’t require a rescue from the
fire department, Barnett said.
Abilenians also kept the phone
lines busy inquiring about which intersections had been flooded.
They also reported objects floating
through or blocking off intersections, Barnett said, everything
from railroad ties and trash cans to cars.
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