What To Say When You Call 911

What you say when you call 911 can speed response by minutes, especially here.

We have a couple areas in Mohave County where when you dial 911 you get Nevada's Public Safety Answering Point their 911 rather than Arizona. 

I was aware of the problem from living in Mohave Valley where driving on US95 your phone switches back and forth from Arizona towers to Nevada towers. 

While driving to Vegas the other day we saw a miner accident about milepost 10 on US93. I dialed 911 and knowing we were close to the border, as soon as they answered I told them I was northbound on US93 at milepost 10 in Arizona. That way the 911 operator knew they had to transfer me to the Arizona Public Safety Answering Point and not waist time asking what type of emergency I have. 

The Mohave County Sheriff is the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for our area, so that's who answers when we call 911 from Dolan. 

Law enforcement in Dolan Springs, Meadview, and on Pierce Ferry Rd is provided by the Mohave County Sheriff's Department. On US-93 law enforcement is provided by the Department of Public Safety, DPS. 

Fire and ambulance service is provided by the Lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District for Dolan Springs, Meadview, Pierce Ferry Rd and US-93 up to milepost 50.

If you know where you are, what's going on, and what agency you need tell the 911 operator.

An example is "I need fire for an injury accident US-93 milepost 42 southbound. This tells the 911 operator at MCSO there's injuries and they need to transfer you to fire dispatch". 

MCSO answers our 911 so if it's a matter for the sheriff go ahead and tell the first 911 operator about the problem. If you know where you are, what's going on, and what agency you need tell them...

Power Outage a Wake Up Call?

We need to make some changes before we have a major weather event or earthquake in our area. The microburst in Dolan Springs that took out 22 power poles was a wake up call. 

This time we were one of only a few places with a power outage. What if power was out in Vegas and other more populated places served by Unisource. Pretty sure they would get service before remote places like Dolan Springs and Meadview. 

A severe weather event or earthquake would take out many more power poles as well as damaging roads repair crews and first responders use to get into or out of Dolan Springs and Meadview. 

When it rains it's common for Pierce Ferry and Stockton Hill Rd to be closed because washes are running high. Several times since I've lived here the ambulance was unable either unable to get to Meadview or transport a patient from Meadview because Pierce Ferry and Stockton Hill Rd were both closed. Severe weather events can close roads and leave medical helicopters unable to fly.

With two firefighters on most days and the chief living in Kingman and working an 8 hour shift, if roads were damaged there's a good chance we would have the two firefighters on duty. So we need local people trained in EMS and CERT or we're in trouble. 

So what do we need? 

Equipment/Supplies
1. Emergency Power preferably solar with battery backup at all three fire stations. the school in Dolan Springs and the designated shelter in Meadview. 

2. Communications, the ability to communicate locally with VHF or UHF radios. So we can gather information on who's injured and what roads are open or closed. We need an HF Ham radio with the ability to communicate with Kingman and Phoenix when other sources are down. 

Training

We need people to care for those who are sick or injured. People with care taking experience and people trained in basic EMS skills. It costs $250 to train EMR's, Emergency Medical Responder and $1500 to train an EMT.

People

We need to train everyone in CPR AED use and First Aid. Train several people to the EMR level and at least two in each community to the EMT level. The book work and test is just the beginning of any EMS training. It's just training, not experience, and it's experience we need when we're ass deep in alligators.