DECATUR - The police officer in charge of the emergency call system used Monday night after a power failure blanketed part of Decatur said the system is working properly.

Deputy Decatur Police Chief Ed Smith also said there was nothing wrong with the separate 911 system in Decatur and Macon County, either. He was concerned people believed that system was defective after some computer-controlled calls to families warning them of Monday's power problems were made early Tuesday morning, long after power had been restored.

Smith said the difficulties had been that the Early Notification System, not part of 911, was given a lot of numbers to call for the time available to call them. He said policies governing the use of the system in emergency situations would be carefully reviewed in the light of Monday's events.

Firefighters had been concerned that a reduced volume of electricity after a substation failed Monday might have posed a safety hazard if people continued to use appliances and electrical devices. The decision was made to warn them using the Early Notification System, which dials landlines to give families and businesses prerecorded emergency messages.

Smith said the system, sometimes mistakenly referred to as Reverse 911, a separate brand-name system, suddenly was faced Monday evening with making 4,588 calls using 12 phone lines at several minutes per call.

"You can figure the math about how long that would take," he said.

Smith said the system can be ramped up dramatically by bringing in a 500-line call center offered by the system provider, but that is very expensive.

"It would be used in major emergencies, if we had, say, a huge chlorine gas spill and needed to evacuate an area immediately," he added.

Smith said the review of the system would be used to help tailor its future use precisely to each emergency situation.

"But I want to emphasize, again, that there is nothing wrong with our overall 911 system," he added.

treid@herald-review.com|421-7977.