Hancock County urges people to text 911 during storms

HANCOCK COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) —  Hancock County is urging people to take advantage of Text to 911 in certain situations during strong or severe storms.

John Jokantas, the county’s emergency operations director said texting could keep 911 operators from getting overwhelmed with calls.

Jokantas said people should text 911 during strong storms for issues that are not life threatening.

Typically, the 911 center in Hancock County gets flooded with calls reporting issues like storm damage or trees blocking roads.  Those issues can add up and increase wait time, especially when there is already a spike in calls due to the storm.

Instead of calling, Jokantas said people can text 911.  The county will still get the complaint and address the issue, but a 911 operator won’t have to answer the phone and speak with caller. The operator will be able to focus on other emergency calls.

If you do have a real emergency, you should call 911. You have the option to text 911 as well, but if you’re in danger the county recommends calling 911 if possible. Jokantas pointed out this is just his advice for Hancock County, other counties may be different.

If you want to report trees down or other storm damage in Marion County, you can always go online to the Mayor’s Action Center.