07.13
Another story about Walker 911 going down last week. But no mention of the second failure Wednesday morning, which we’ve also verified. The article hints problems may have begun before storms rolled through, which would likely connect the July 5th and July 11th 911 failures to a similar problem yet to be named.
This article, and a similar report on WQCH, claims that the problem only impacted landlines, not cell phones. But we’ve heard accounts of trouble with cells as well. Walker County Coordinator David Ashburn is the ultimate authority responsible for 911 in Walker County, and he’s spinning this story to cover his own considerable butt.
As we said earlier, it’s not a problem with the operators. They can’t answer phones that don’t ring. The person or persons, including Mr. Ashburn, supervising technology upgrades there are the ones at fault here. The center did an intentional software upgrade and did not set up their backups, which should have been done, and as a result at least one person’s life (if not more) came close to ending because they could not get emergency medical attention in a timely manner.
Despite the low-key response, this failure is a big bleeping deal. If 911 goes down again somebody – or somebodies – needs to lose their job over it.
This week’s Walker County Plus came with a free bonus: peelable, reusable Bebe Heiskell stickers that say “CNN Money / WALKER COUNTY / Where Unemployment is Tumbling!” over someone else’s paid advertising.
According to Walker Messenger employees, the paper (or its parent company) has a policy of placing stickers for one advertiser over ads for another, it’s not just about Heiskell or their editorial bias towards her. (This may explain why they’re in financial trouble. Who wants to risk running an ad under that?)
But the stickers are removable and reusable. Here’s where some of them ended up:
In light of the “Unemployment is Tumbling!” lie, this use seems appropriate.
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