911 Back-Up System to Operate While County Website Is Down Sunday

The county will conduct a planned power outage of its communications systems Sunday, June 30, but advises the 911 system will not be affected.

“We are looking at this as an opportunity to test our public safety systems during a power outage in a controlled environment,” said Chief Stephan Hudson. “This means that we will be better prepared in the unlikely instance that we lose power during an emergency.”

According to an article the Office of Executive Management posted on the Prince William County website, the George T. Owens Operation Center is planning to shut down their system for the purpose of upgrading the system to one that will supply “additional power supplies to the county’s emergency operation systems."

The power down will begin at 3 a.m. and is expected to last until 3 p.m. Sunday.

Because the 911 System has a back-up, residents of Prince William County can continue to call 911 in case of an emergency and the police number 703-792-6500 for non-emergency issues.

“The public safety radio system, as well as the disaster recovery Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, will be operating as normal,” said an article posted on the Office of Executive Management.

However, county staff warns that the Prince William County website will be affected on that day.

“It is critical for us to add this additional power supply,” said Chief Kevin McGee. “It will provide redundancy so that both systems can run without a generator for multiple hours, which will improve the resiliency of our public safety systems.”