911 disruption attributed to cut fiber optic cable in Lake County
****MANDATORY DISCLAIMER: **EDS. NOTE: THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN DIGITALLY ALTERED TO BLUR SENSITIVE AND PROTECTED TEXT DISPLAYED ON MONITORS, BOTH IN TEXT AND DISPLAYED ON MAPS IN THE 911 COMMUNICATIONS CENTER.**** Dispatchers and call takers work at their stations in the 911 Communications Center at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in Ocala, Fla. on Friday, April 5, 2024. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.
This story was updated at 3:08 p.m. to include new information.
The two 911 call centers in Marion County, one run by the Ocala Police Department and the other by Marion County, reported at least nine hours of disrupted service on July 8.
At least 11 other public safety answering centers in Central Florida were also impacted, according to Michelle Sanders, Director 911 Management for Marion County. They included the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Groveland Police Department, Lake County Sheriff’s Department, Kissimmee Police Department, Mount Dora Police Department, St. Cloud Police Department, Leesburg Police Department, Polk County 911 Center, Putnam County 911, Sumter County ECC and Citrus County (Sheriff’s Office) Emergency Operations.
A media release from Marion County attributed the disruption to a cut in fiber optic cable in Clermont. However, Lake County could not provide any details about the incident at the time of publishing this report.
Sanders confirmed that there are backup plans in place and that ideally the county’s “911 traffic should have been routed through a diverse, redundant path on our 911 carrier’s network. However, when I raised this issue last night, I was informed that unfortunately, both the protected and unprotected sides of our fiber path experienced issues. I will be having further discussions with them to fully understand how this could happen, especially given their commitment to ensuring completely diverse and redundant routing for 911 traffic. Their goal has always been to eliminate single points of failure.”
Sanders also opined in her email that “situations like this should be eliminated once we complete our migration to INdigital as our Next Generation Core Service Provider – a project currently in progress.”
The disruption was reported around 2:40 p.m. in Marion County, according to a spokesperson for Marion County Fire Rescue, which manages the county’s 911 call center.
The spokesperson indicated that voice calls were being dropped, however, the call takers were able to see the dropped numbers and call back. The spokesperson also confirmed there was no disruption to their system to dispatch for help.
Alert Marion issued numerous warnings to citizens who needed help that text to 911 was still working by noting: “If you have an emergency, send a text message to 911 with your location and the nature of your emergency. Dispatchers are waiting to assist you.”
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Prior reporting on local emergency infrastructure:
Siloed agencies pose unnecessary challenges to improving public safety levels | Ocala Gazette
Providing quality observations to the community takes a lot of time and work | Ocala Gazette
Fatal crash leaves questions about City emergency communications | Ocala Gazette
Can emergency personnel locate me through my cellphone? | Ocala Gazette
The “first” of the first responders | Ocala Gazette
City of Ocala emergency dispatch continues to struggle | Ocala Gazette
What happens when you call 911 in Marion County | Ocala Gazette
Update on city emergency response times for fire, medical | Ocala Gazette
Podcast: Ocala Gazette Podcast — December 27, 2024 – January 2, 2025 | Ocala Gazette
State legislatures propose statewide consolidation of 911 | Ocala Gazette
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