Clarkston News Staff Writers
Public safety agencies faced some communication glitches because of the Thursday, Aug. 14 blackout, but reported no major crises otherwise.
The blackout passed by fairly smoothly in Independence and Springfield townships as well as in the City of the Village of Clarkston, with no crimes or traffic accidents occurring.
The Independence Township Fire Department found itself out of communications with Oakland County Central Dispatch for a short period of time, because an emergency generator did not immediately activate at the repeater tower covering the area.
Capt. Mike Farner said they switched over to the local township transmitter and dispatched calls locally. That left other township departments, including the Department of Public Works, without radio service.
The transition took only “a couple of minutes,” and the county repeater was up and running within three or four hours, Farner said.
Traffic was a bit of a concern during emergency responses, but most medical cases were transported to the new Clarkston Medical Center, which was fully operating thanks to their own emergency generators.
“We didn’t have any major problems,” Farner said. “That’s why the backup system is in place.”
Lt. Dale LaBair of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department in Independence Township said, “We stayed in good shape.”
The department took emergency calls only on Thursday, while traffic was monitored.
“I was pleasantly surprised at the way traffic worked. People, for the most part, were considerate and treated intersections as four-way stops. There was no real problems.”
In the city, Police Chief Ernest Combs said portable stop signs were placed at all the traffic lights.
“The stop signs were very efficient. The traffic was god-awful, but there was nothing we could do to help it.”
“People did a nice job keeping calm,” Sgt. Frank Schipani of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department said in Springfield Township said. “We had some busy gas stations (on Friday). I don’t know why people had to rush out and fill up.”
On the crime front, things stayed quiet.
“There was no crime,” LaBair said, and Schipani and Combs said the same.
When power outages have happened in the past, it is typically limited locally. With it being widespread this time, LaBair said the township did not have the resources they would normally draw from other jurisdictions.
But he said, “We did well on our own. This was a good wakeup call.”
LaBair said they’ll look at what improvements need to be made, such as making plans for obtaining point-to-point radios in an emergency, which are on hand and available through township, to save from communication problems.