Bellevue 911 dispatcher a cool operator
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BELLEVUE, Wash. - For nine years she has sat almost anonymously in front of her computer monitors at Bellevue’s 911 dispatch center, answering thousands of calls. But none quite like the one she got last August.
Two teenagers were trapped in a collapsed ice cave and their frantic parents were on the line.
"I knew right away it wasn’t going to be a quick call," said 911
dispatcher Becky McCracken. "I just try to put myself in their place
and be as calm as I can."
McCracken
stayed on the line with the parents for an hour, directing rescue crews
to the scene along Denny Creek near Snoqualmie Pass. Two mothers,
their teenage sons and young daughters had gone for a short hike when
the ice cave collapsed on the boys. The mothers didn’t know exactly
where they were, so McCracken went through the painstaking process of
pinpointing their location, using trail maps at her disposal and
sketchy descriptions given to her by the mothers. "It’s just unbelievable how everything came together that day," said McCracken. Read more...