“Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station, is this an emergency?”
That greeting may have been unexpected for Santa Clarita residents phoning 911 Thursday.
Since 10:45 a.m., a series of power failures in Valencia caused their calls and the non-emergency lines to be diverted away from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station to other stations more than 25 miles away.
“We are working to have phone service restored but we do not know when it will be completed,” spokeswoman Shirley Miller said at 1:46 p.m.
Though the phones at the station may be quieter than usual, the outage hasn’t slowed local deputies responding to calls for service within the area.
“We want the public to know that this will not affect our service in assisting them with any emergent situations as all calls are being re-routed to other sheriff’s stations and our deputies are being dispatched,” Miller said.
Callers to both the 911 and non-emergency lines will be greeted by a friendly voice they may not necessarily recognize, but it will be someone very familiar with handling their situations, officials noted.
But Miller said it’s important to be descriptive and vigilant in regard to knowing your exact location and landmarks.
“We ask that the public please be patient with the dispatchers who are answering their calls. They are not working in the SCV and may not be familiar with the area, so they may have to ask additional questions,” she said.
