Our new intern has arrived and is excited to be blogging to tell you about his experience with us! Gary comes to us from Central Penn College and is majoring in Homeland Security!
My first week at Cumberland Counties Communication Center was a great experience. I like most people did not know what really goes on a 9-1-1 call center. I also did not know what to expect when I got a tour of the facilities. I want to try to describe the facility so you can get a picture of what this place looks like. Imagine a building that has a bunch of offices, where many of the staff members have multiple monitors. I thought it was cool to see the Emergency Operation Center. For those who don’t know what an Emergency Operation Center is, it’s a huge room where emergency management officials handle long term issues that arise from a disaster. This room has more computers than a College computer lab. This room is filled with huge smart boards, which during the time of an emergency would display just about every important detail needed by the officials that would be in the room. The 9-1-1 center which is the next room over is just as amazing. In the 9-1-1 center there are a number of stations. Each station has a different duty. For instance, one station might deal with the fire department and EMS, while another station would deal with the police department. Then there are stations that backup other stations that need help because they are getting too many calls at one time. Each station worker has the ability to read real time information that would be on 1 of his/her multiple monitors.
My first week at Cumberland Counties Communication Center was a great experience. I like most people did not know what really goes on a 9-1-1 call center. I also did not know what to expect when I got a tour of the facilities. I want to try to describe the facility so you can get a picture of what this place looks like. Imagine a building that has a bunch of offices, where many of the staff members have multiple monitors. I thought it was cool to see the Emergency Operation Center. For those who don’t know what an Emergency Operation Center is, it’s a huge room where emergency management officials handle long term issues that arise from a disaster. This room has more computers than a College computer lab. This room is filled with huge smart boards, which during the time of an emergency would display just about every important detail needed by the officials that would be in the room. The 9-1-1 center which is the next room over is just as amazing. In the 9-1-1 center there are a number of stations. Each station has a different duty. For instance, one station might deal with the fire department and EMS, while another station would deal with the police department. Then there are stations that backup other stations that need help because they are getting too many calls at one time. Each station worker has the ability to read real time information that would be on 1 of his/her multiple monitors.
I hope I detailed the facility enough that you could possibly have a decent picture in your mind. Trust me this facility is a thing of beauty, which I think is great. This week after I met many of the faculty members and got myself situated and I began doing some work. I began a project that has a good deal of importance. I began sending by mail a couple papers to organizations or facilities in the County that save lives or help the elderly. These papers include needed information about the generators they use, and if they never thought about having a generator maybe now they would begin to think about obtaining one. Generators are very important because during an emergency if power would go out they would need a backup to keep their facilities running. This week I also attended my first staff meeting. The staff meetings here are much different than the ones I have had at other jobs. The meetings are not simple 5 minute greeting meetings. Instead they are filled with key information that enables the staff members to be on the same page like training dates and details on different projects that are going on. The County has a great group of people that love their jobs, and are very serious about the work they do here.
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