Phone failure leaves 911 calls unanswered

Multiple breakdowns in system blamed for problems

The outage left County Council members dismayed, and county and Verizon workers scrambling for answers.

‘‘This is very troubling,” said Council President Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown. ‘‘The more troubling part is you don’t want it to be the same thing as before, but by the same token, how many different gaps are there in our system?”

Sunday’s disruption, which occurred between 10:40 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., involved two problems, Verizon spokesman Harry J. Mitchell said.

A Verizon circuit connecting 911 calls to the primary emergency center in Gaithersburg went out. That was exacerbated by a software problem between the primary and backup systems, Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he did not have more details on why the system failed.

‘‘Verizon has repaired the circuit and corrected the software problem,” he said. ‘‘In addition, the company and the county are continuing their investigation and will work together to minimize the possibility of a recurrence of this situation in the future.”

The County Council has asked for a full briefing when it reconvenes Jan. 15, Knapp said.

On Sept. 22, the county’s 911 center experienced an outage for about 10 minutes. When it was discovered, dispatchers activated the backup center in Rockville and restored 911 service through there.

But that didn’t happen Sunday.

‘‘That’s the part that’s disconcerting,” Knapp said. ‘‘We’ve got redundancies and that’s great, but we’ve got a number of redundancies and this still happens. That’s concerning.”

One of problems was that nothing in the system signaled to dispatchers that there was a problem, said Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg, chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee.

Dispatchers did not know there was a problem Sunday, one of the quietest days of the week, thinking they were in a stretch without calls, said County Police spokesman Lt. Paul Starks. County police oversee the 911 system.

But, Starks said, some calls were able to get through.

Other callers heard either a ringing signal with no one answering or a recording saying the number was not in service, Starks said.

The county and Verizon have no idea of how many calls could not get through.

After the problem was discovered, the county sent out text message alerts to the 11,300 residents who have signed up for the free service, asking them to call their local fire stations. Police also notified the media, posting an alternative number for people to use, Starks said.

However, the alert text message went out at 1:30 p.m. — about the same time that the system was restored. The message that 911 was back in service arrived almost seven hours later at 8:24 p.m. The person responsible for sending the alerts could not send the update because the power went out at his home, said county spokeswoman Donna M. Bigler. The county intends to look at backup plans for the alert system.

Knapp, who initially hailed the Montgomery alerts as something that worked on Sunday, said he intends to look into the delays.

Steve Souder, director of public safety communications in Fairfax County, Va., said his department has not experienced an outage in two years and he had not heard of others before his arrival two years ago.

‘‘We’ve been extremely fortunate in Fairfax County,” he said.

Souder, who has been in the emergency communications field for 50 years, including directing Montgomery County’s emergency center before moving to Fairfax, said 911 outages are extremely rare. He is interested in finding out more about the county’s disruption.

‘‘How can you learn from someone else’s misfortune?” he asked. ‘‘Do we have any Achilles’ heels?”