911 center loses power in Lexington

An emergency operations center in Kentucky lost power leaving people unable to report emergencies for a few minutes. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports a technician performing routine maintenance Monday, opened a cabinet door to part of the electrical system, shutting off power to Lexington’s Emergency Operations Center. The city said the outage lasted 16 minutes, but after two minutes dispatchers were able to contact first responders with backup radios. E-911 Director Robert Stack immediately sent half of the 911 operators and dispatchers on duty to the backup center in police headquarters, which operates independently from the operations center. Chief of Staff Geoff Reed of Mayor Jim Gray’s office said the cause is being investigated.