Fewer Black Friday emergency calls in NHC

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) - New Hanover County 911 center operators are trained to handle any emergency call, and they're gearing up for a busy holiday season.

"The holidays put a lot of stress on people, especially people in financial situations and hardships," shift supervisor Dawn Williams said.

In previous years, Black Friday have been busy for the center as calls from agitated Black Friday shoppers pour in, but this year was the exception. "It could be because [stores] opened yesterday," Williams speculated. "That didn't cram everyone into the stores today.

Operators train for nearly a year to handle emergency calls. "You have to be a very strong person. You have to be able to recognize an emergency situation based on just the tone of someone voice," Williams said. "I think the hardest part of the job is have to walk away and come back the next day knowing that you may never find out what happened to the call you took the day before."

Williams emphasized that she wants the public to understand that the men and women who answer their calls are not the same people who will arrive on scene. The series of questions they ask callers do not delay the response time, but actually improve it by providing valuable information to the appropriate emergency response personnel.

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