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ST. LOUIS – Public safety leaders with the City of St. Louis explained the roles of their 911 systems, dispatch operations and emergency response times after severe storms over the weekend left one woman dead and thousands without power for days.

Intense storms rolled through the St. Louis region on Saturday afternoon, packing lightning, heavy rain, hail and gusts as high as 70 mph in Missouri and Illinois.

The storms left many St. Louis residents concerned about response times. One woman died as a tree fell onto her on Chouteau Avenue in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood while waiting out the storms in her car.

Frustration, grief over child’s death following delayed emergency response

Mike Richardson, Battalion Fire Chief of the St. Louis Fire Department, says the department first learned about the situation from an EMS rollover call. These kind of calls happen If EMS doesn’t pick up in a minute and half. Richardson said, in these cases, a 911 dispatcher is unable to answer the call, so the call moves over to the next available regional dispatch center.

In relation to the Chouteau Avenue call for service, the call came in to the fire department around 4:18 p.m. Richardson says SLFD was able to send out its first unit at 4:21 p.m.

The initial units requested were at Margarette and Taylor plus Grand and Gravois, two locations several minutes away from the situation. Richardson says a third unit was requested and arrived to the scene by 4:24 p.m. The first rescue squad then arrived to the scene by 4:26 p.m.

The fire department explained, as firetrucks head to various calls, units that may take longer to arrive to the scene due to their locations might be cancelled. The first two units requested had been cancelled.

Public Safety Director Charles Coyle offered additional context around the emerging situation Saturday. He confirmed there were more than 1,000 calls for service on Saturday, including 600 to 911 dispatchers and 400 non-emergency dispatchers.

Coyle says the city is dealing with a 40% shortage in 911 dispatchers and 15% shortage in EMS dispatchers. There were five 911 dispatchers and three fire dispatchers working during the main weather event on Wednesday. Ideally, Coyle says there could be up to ten 911 dispatchers at one time on Saturdays.

While presumably short-staffed, the 911 dispatch center was receiving around nine calls per minute. Coyle says around 21 phone lines are in place at the main 911 dispatch center. The city was also dealing with an overflow of emergency calls from St. Louis County.

On Saturday, when calls were not picked up by a 911 dispatcher, they went to a VIPER system, which allows individuals to choose EMS dispatch or other VIPER options. Coyle says calls are answered in order when they are received. By hanging up, a caller risks back of the line to provide information. Callers will also get an automated call back as the dispatch centers can track calls from numbers on hold.

Coyle said the EMS response times to calls for July 1st was 4-6 minutes and says the city tried to deploy units several miles away from certain emergencies, such as the tree incident.

Amid staff shortages, Coyle says the following plans have been in place with hopes to improve 911 operations and emergency response times:

The city recently created a new position public safety dispatcher

The city offers daycare services for first responders

The city is working to secure more funding for a PSAP center

St. Louis also recently made a change to its non-emergency phone line to help alleviate non-emergency calls to the 911 communications center.

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