Minnesota, Please Stop Calling 911 for Weather Reports
What's a good reason to call 9-1-1? A car crash just happened, a crime is happening, a house is burning, a baby needs immediate medical attention, a downed tree or power line in the road. All very good reasons to call 9-1-1.
What's not a good reason to call 9-1-1? When you want to know the weather. Seriously. I can't believe this needs to be said out loud, but the Winona County Sheriff's Office says it does. And they're correct. Check it out...
On an average day our dispatch center is staffed with 2-3 dispatchers and receives about 180 emergency and non emergency phone calls.
Last night over a period of THREE HOURS, our dispatch center received 230 calls! That's 50 more phone calls in just three hours than we typically receive in an entire day.
The majority of the phone calls were related to the weather and were received by just two dispatchers.
So mega busy during the storm Tuesday night. Gotchya. Y'all work your butts off on an average day, during a storm, I can't even imagine trying to keep track of all the chaos. I'm pretty sure most of us feel this way and don't want to pile on.
But not everyone...
We can't give weather reports or tell you what the weather is doing or going to do.
Also don't call 911 when your power goes out (unless, of course, it is an emergency situation). They can't get your power back on. Only the power company can do that.
Listen to James Rabe 6a to 9a on Y-105 FM