Police and fire stations stations across North Texas are sending out a message: Stop calling 911 about power outages.
“Basically, we’re getting overwhelmed with people calling our dispatch center because their power is out,” says Lieutenant Pedro Barineau, with Garland Police. “We certainly want people to call us if there is an emergency, however there are other alternatives for power outages. We want to make sure that if there are people who have police or medical emergencies ... that the lines are available.”
Fort Worth Fire says since midnight, they’ve received 650 calls. On a typical day they respond to about 350. They are also asking for people not to call about the power.
There are exceptions. Barineau says if a power outage leads to a medical emergency, you should call 911. “For an emergency, absolutely,” he says. “But we’re asking people not to call just because your power is out, and it has been out for several hours.”
For updates on power outages, you can call Oncor. Officials there say the time of the rolling outages has been extended and they could now last up to several hours.