Communications Center Fails

[Guest guest]

June 3 (La Playa, TX)--A county EMS communications center was shut down

after a raccoon chewed his way into the service box killing himself in the

act. , county communications supervisor, reported that the

communications center has a back-up generator. However, the generator did

not start properly. It too had was infested with a family of skunks.

Unfortunately the mother skunk and four skunk kits were living in the

exhaust system. As the generator began to operate, three of the skunk kits

were forcibly ejected from the exhaust pipe and struck the building where

two were found dead. Because of the odor and lack of electricity, the

communications center remained closed for 36 hours. A subsequent review of

EMS calls during the outage actually demonstrated a 1:06 minute reduction in

ambulance response times and a 23% improvement in customer satisfaction

surveys. The center resumed normal operations two dayes after the incident.

(Carolyn Polecat contributed to this story).