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Dispatchers field hundreds of calls during Friday weather event

Posted at 4:27 PM, Feb 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-08 16:27:04-05

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Kent County dispatchers have had a very busy day, dealing with power outages, fallen trees and branches and crashes due to today's winter blast.

Between 7:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Kent County dispatch tells FOX 17 that they fielded 830 911 calls and 515 non-emergency calls.  Fire crews were dispatched to 482 calls, 401 of which were calls for wires down. 43 were for medical emergencies.

Dispatchers also say they were called for 96 crashes and 173 reports of trees or tree limbs down.

At one point, the dispatch center was processing 148 simultaneous incidents, which they say was one of their busiest time periods on record.  The 911 volume was 11 times their normal call volume.