Displaying 2 items of The Political Spotlight with the tag "disaster response".
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#717 | Sunday, August 16, 2026 | The Political Spotlight
August 16th, 2026 | 2 hrs 15 mins
911 director fred cummings, 911 dispatch, backup channels, backup communications, communications failure, communications infrastructure, communications outage, communications redundancy, delaware county commissioners, delaware county government, delaware county indiana, delaware county politics, disaster response, east central indiana, emergency communications, emergency dispatch, emergency management, emergency preparedness, emergency radio system, emergency services, equipment damage, failover system, fire communications, first responders, flood emergency, flooding, historic flooding, infrastructure damage, lieutenant justin peters, local government, local politics, mayor dan ridenour, mpd, muncie, muncie fire department, muncie indiana, muncie police department, muncie politics, police communications, priority 1 calls, property damage, public accountability, public safety, public safety communications, public safety infrastructure, radio communications, radio failure, repair costs, sampson avenue communications site, severe weather, shannon henry, sherry riggin, stephen brand
Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey continues coverage of the historic flooding that struck Muncie, Delaware County, and East Central Indiana, including the lives lost, major property damage, and serious questions about public-safety communications during the disaster. Bilbrey examines firsthand accounts from Muncie police, fire, and EMS personnel, along with an MPD end-of-shift report detailing intermittent radio problems, Fire/EMS paging issues, flooding at the Sampson Avenue communications site, Priority 1-only responses, and concerns about backup capabilities. Delaware County Commissioner Stephen Brand offers a different account, saying backup and failover systems worked and that he is unaware of any critical communication failures or public consequences. Bilbrey outlines what is known, what remains unclear, and the questions officials must answer about system failures, backup communications, damage, repair costs, and what must change before the next major emergency. #ThePoliticalSpotlight
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#716 | Thursday, August 13, 2026 | The Political Spotlight
August 13th, 2026 | 2 hrs 6 mins
911 dispatch, aep, backup communications, communications failure, communications redundancy, contingency planning, delaware county commissioners, delaware county emergency management, delaware county ems, delaware county indiana, disaster response, east central indiana, emergency communications, emergency communications system, emergency dispatch, emergency management, emergency preparedness, emergency radio system, emergency services, fire communications, first responders, flood emergency, flooding, henry county indiana, historic flooding, infrastructure failure, local government, local politics, motorola communications tower, mpd, muncie, muncie city delaware county 911 dispatch center, muncie fire department, muncie indiana, muncie police department, muncie politics, police communications, priority 1 calls, public safety, public safety communications, public safety infrastructure, radio communications, radio failure, randolph county indiana, severe weather
Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey examines the historic flooding emergency that struck East Central Indiana, particularly in southern Muncie and Delaware County, with impacts extending into Henry and Randolph counties. As first responders battled what has been reported as the area’s worst flooding in more than 113 years, Muncie and Delaware County’s public-safety communications system faced a crisis of its own. MPD radios reportedly experienced repeated outages; the primary Motorola communications tower near 18th Street and Sampson Avenue was found underwater; and the Fire and EMS paging system went down. Bilbrey examines reports indicating that no fully operational backup existed if the tower failed, forcing dispatchers and officers to rely on alternative communications while MPD responded primarily to Priority 1 calls. The episode examines what happened, the severity of the communications breakdown, and the questions officials must now address regarding the reliability, redundancy, and emergency preparedness of this critical public-safety system. #ThePoliticalSpotlight