Contact: Craig Whittington
Phone: 336-373-2506

Exercise Postponed Until May - 4/5/11

Guilford Metro 9-1-1 Preparedness Exercise Set for April 5

GREENSBORO, NC – (April 1, 2011) – Guilford Metro 9-1-1 will pull the plug on the consolidated city/county 9-1-1 center, 1201 Coliseum Blvd., Tuesday, April 5, during its biannual disaster preparedness exercise. All of the 9-1-1 center communications personnel will move to the backup location, the former Guilford County 9-1-1 center, 1002 Meadowood St., for the 72-hour “plugs out” event. 

According to Guilford Metro 9-1-1 Special Projects Coordinator Craig Whittington, residents will not notice a difference in 9-1-1 service when they switch over to the backup center around 6:30 am Tuesday morning. “This kind of real-life exercise prepares our staff in the event of a man-made or natural disaster impacting or disabling the primary 9-1-1 center. Be it flood, fire, or whatever may cause an evacuation, the goal is that 9-1-1 operations will not be affected.”  

Whittington says the exercise is part of the 9-1-1 center’s overall Continuity of Operations Plan, or CoOP, and is required by the federal government. The event occurs every six months to get the operations staff comfortable with the move and activation process. “The exercise allows us to test all the equipment and technology in a real world or ‘under load’ situation so that if anything ever compromised the main center, we could still maintain all critical operations in the backup center,” says Whittington. “Our primary goal is to be there for the residents.”

Thanks to the consolidation and co-location of the former city and county 9-1-1 centers, Guilford Metro is one of few 9-1-1 centers with a fully equipped “hot” backup center. “It’s really rare to have a situation in which there is an exact duplicate facility across town,” says Guilford Metro 9-1-1 Director Wesley Reid. “Thanks to the forethought of the elected leaders in both Greensboro and Guilford County, the backup center is always there in a hot standby or ready-to-go mode.”

For more information, contact Whittington at 336-373-2506.

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