Listen to the Montgomery County 911 calls
It isn’t like we live in California. Us East Coast folks aren’t so sure what that rumble means. Even if no one is hurt or property damaged, we need reassurance we aren’t alone. My former colleague from Channel 9 Scott Broom listened to some of the calls that came into the 911 Center in Montgomery County, Maryland just after 5:00 this morning. Here’s what he wrote:
Callers to 911 in the moments after the 3.6 magnitude earthquake that shook the capital region were bewildered by the shaking while equally surprised operators kept their cool.
“Yea, we felt it too,” a 9-11 dispatcher told one confused caller before asking to make sure no one was injured or needed medical help.
Another dispatcher told a caller asking if the shaking was an earthquake: “We’ve taken a lot of calls for it and we’re still trying to figure that out.”
No injuries or medical conditions were reported.
“So there was not an explosion or anything?” asked one caller who said he’d had experience with tremors. “I work for FEMA and I’ve been through an earthquake before, and I think that might have been an earthquake!”
Many of the calls to 911 started with a startled statement: “My house just shook!”
Also on STATter911 …
- Fire engine transport of heart attack victim may have saved his life. Montgomery County, Maryland firefighters praised for snow response. – February 7, 2011
- Video: Two-alarm motel fire in South Hackensack, New Jersey, leaves firefighters, cops & motel guest injured. – January 12, 2011
- TV station questions dispatchers’ handling of cardiac arrest call. Listen to 911 recording & read reports from Ocean City, Maryland. – November 19, 2010
- A must listen: WTOP Radio reports DC 911 call taker can’t find major intersection in the Nation’s Capital. Is this really a glitch in the system? – February 25, 2011
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I just need someone to talk to sometimes. I don’t think I’ve ever considered 911 to be the number I’d call for a water cooler chat.
Dave, Julia Rockler here.
I look at a map of the epicenter (39.17N 77.25W) and note with eyebrows raised that it’s within spitting distance of NIST’s nuclear reactor. O.K., soas not to be a complete conspiracy nut, I won’t ask if it was caused by the reactor, but I’ll just ask, is the reactor safe?
An earthquake occuring in the East Coast is unusual. Out here in California it’s a fairly common occurance. Depending upon where you’re located in relation to the epicenter it’s either
“ride-it-out” and go back to doing what you were doing or, it’s start picking up the pieces of broken dishes and re-stocking the items that came off of the store shelves.
1st Responder. If someone hasn’t been through an earthquake before, calling 911 for a few re-assuring words may be all that’s needed to keep someone calm. It’s also a chance to remind the caller to make sure they go down their Earthquake check list to make sure, utilities and gas have been shut off if they need to do it and so on down the list.
I feel vibrations….. When I feel these vibrations an earthquake will occur. I never know where…but it will occur within 7-10 days of me feeling these vibrations. I live in Los Gatos California. These are very consistent vibrations …similar to what I felt when the tsunami hit on the other side of the world. They are very constant. I feel there will be a very large quake in the next seven to ten days. I live close to the San Andres and lived here in the quake of 1989….I hope nothing happens! Felt I needed to say something because these are the worst …well most constant vibrations I have felt in a while. This will be big. I hope not but…I feel something coming. Hope I am wrong.