Ill. Lightning Forces Logan County 911 to Use Backup Plan
April 08--LINCOLN -- Lightning may never strike twice in the same place, but don't tell that to Logan County Emergency Management Agency Director Dan Fulscher.
In May 1993, Fulscher was on the phone in the rural Lincoln firehouse with the McLean County 911 dispatcher when a bolt of lightning struck the building. He was thrown violently out of the room and was unconscious for several minutes on the floor. He spent four days in ICU, but recovered.
Last Thursday was deja vu for Fulscher, who was inside the 911 communications center at the Logan County Complex when it was struck by lightning.
"I've been in a building before that was struck by lightning and that didn't work out too well for me," he said. "But this time, fortunately, nobody was hurt."
Still, the strike to the east tower did an estimated $500,000 worth of damage to the county's 911 system. The computers were saved by the firewall, but much of the software and several monitors were lost.
"As each day goes by, we can virtually see more and more of the damage," Fulscher said. "We are consistently hearing about more damage such as from the jail monitoring system and things like that. With a lightning strike, it can also weaken the systems, too, so we may be finding new things it damaged for the next six months."
The strike occurred about 6 a.m., just as a staff meeting was about to begin.
"It sounded like a shotgun," said Fulscher. "There was a big bang and there was a storm at that time so it didn't take too long to know what had happened. The smell of lead was so strong that it hurt your teeth and you could taste it in your mouth. We knew right away that there was significant damage because 12 of our 15 monitors were knocked out."
Fulscher said the agency routinely practices emergency scenarios and the backup plan was immediately put into place. A temporary command post was established at the Lincoln Rural Fire Department and there were no 911 calls missed in the process.
"I was so proud of our team," he said. "There was not one person who got too excited or had that 'deer in the headlights' look. Everything went exactly as we had planned it. Everything fell into place and the employees of the dispatch center just did a great job."
The backup system is still being used, and calls are being handled in a timely fashion with only about a 10- to 15-second delay from normal standards, he said. Slowly, the original system will be replaced.
"We had the insurance adjuster here Friday and Friday night and they met with some county officials and county board chairmen," he said. "We hope insurance covers everything but this is a public safety issue and we have to get things replaced and we can't wait so we will move forward with as much as we can."
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