The DeWitt County 9-1-1 Director is reflecting on the events of June 29 when a derecho produced a tornado near Wappella and what his office went through that day.

On the WHOW Morning Show Tuesday, Tony Harris told Regional Radio they received an overwhelming number of calls that day, and most of the calls they received were a lot of wind damage reports and a need for assistance for trees on fire in contact with live power lines.

CENCOM faced its own challenges that afternoon. According to Harris, the wind impacted one of its repeaters for fire communications, and that led to having to call in Blake West to communicate with his guys via their portable radios.

A challenge for dispatchers during an emergency is fielding multiple calls regarding the same incident. Harris notes there was some of that and because of the widespread nature of the storm and damage, that made it challenging to make sure they weren't fielding calls on a duplicate emergency.

Harris indicates one issue they did encounter was people calling 9-1-1 for things that were not emergencies - primarily power outages. While he recognizes the stress a lot of people were under that day, he encourages those needing call dispatchers to consider the severity of the situation and if it truly is an emergency.

The public was very patient with authorities on that Thursday and Harris is appreciative of the public's understanding that many first responders were getting to other emergencies.

Harris also gives kudos to Ameren utility workers who were hard at work for several days following the storm working to get power back up for impacted residents. 

He notes the calls about the storm have not stopped. He explains as Ameren would turn the power back on for certain areas, there might be active lines up against a tree and that would create more tree fires. He says they have received numerous calls like that in recent days.