By Penny Ray
Cherokee Scout
A well-intentioned attempt to inform the public about the loss of emergency 911 communications last week turned into a war of words, with some citizens blaming law enforcement officials for disturbing their sleep.
The public’s misdirected anger prompted a local official to pen a light-hearted poem that mirrors “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
“Those Nixle alerts don’t come from the sheriff’s office, they come from emergency management, and you specifically have to sign up for them,” said Theresa Creasman, 911 communications director for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office. “That’s what prompted my poem.”
Around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, crew workers with Frontier Communications and its contractors were responsible for relocating fiber-optic cables as part of a bridge replacement project in Dillsboro. During the operation, someone inadvertently cut a fiber line, causing a five-hour disruption to emergency 911 service in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, as well as the Cherokee tribal area. Services were restored by 4:30 a.m. Friday.
Around 2 a.m., Cherokee County Emergency Management broadcasted an alert via Nixle, notifying local subscribers that emergency communication lines were not working. Nixle, which is designed to help emergency professionals communicate with the public, can call landlines and cell phones or send emails and text messages, depending on the subscriber’s choice. The early morning alerts angered sleeping residents, some who vented their frustration on Facebook.
Creasman’s response, which should be credited for rhyming extremely well, informed citizens of a few facts that may have been lost among the anger.
“All emergency services and first responders arose to the challenge and were ready for the fight. Working tirelessly and without complaint throughout the whole night,” the poem reads. “Drinking mugs of coffee and cans of Red Bull to keep on task. Sending out proper notification to all citizens and to protect your spoiled and ungrateful a**. And at dawn arose the well-rested naysayers and Monday morning quarterbacks. Flocking to Facebook to complain … spitting and spewing and to gripe about none of the facts.”
Those facts remain unclear, as Frontier Communications has not publicly stated how the fiber line was cut. Moreover, this is not the first time 911 communications were disrupted during a project involving Frontier, as similar incidents happened in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
“This was the fifth time that Cherokee County has been disconnected from the rest of the planet,” Creasman said. “When they reroute fiber, it’s supposed to be seamless. Interruptions should not occur.”
Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Wood, who along with Creasman remained awake more than 27 hours that day because they worked the dayshift Thursday, echoed her frustration.
“Frontier failed to follow through from their side,” Wood said Saturday night during a community meeting in Martins Creek. “There was a miscommunication with the contractor. If my internet is down, miscommunication is fine. But when 911 is down, I take it real personal. We’re going to be calling legislators [about this], too.”
Creasman said she hopes no one interprets her poem as mean-spirited toward residents of Cherokee County, which is why she chose to be humorous.
“Only a small percentage of people were upset,” she said. “Everyone else was grateful.”
Police ask that citizens keep the sheriff’s office non-emergency number, 479-3352, on-hand in case of another communications outage.