BOURNE – The Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office has responded to a CWN inquiry on the generator failure during the blizzard that affected the communications center.
In a statement, spokesperson K.C. Myers told CWN that: The Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office’s Regional Emergency Communications Center (RECC) dispatches for 13 fire departments and answers 911 calls for 10 communities on the Cape. Like everything else on the Cape, the center was impacted by widespread outages during the Blizzard of 2026. The center transitioned to generator power on February 23 at approximately 5 AM.
On February 26 at around 11 AM, the generator experienced a mechanical failure, and the center operated on battery power for 30 minutes. During this period, RECC administration activated its Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP).
To maintain seamless emergency services:
• 911 call traffic was automatically rerouted to the Barnstable Police Department, the RECC’s designated alternated 911 site. Two BCSO dispatchers were deployed to support call-taking operations there.
• Seven telecommunicators were assigned to three mobile command vehicles positioned behind the center.
Thanks to careful coordination and preparedness, there were no known interruptions in 911 call-taking or dispatching services to our communities.
At approximately 5:30 PM on Feb. 26, a temporary generator was installed and activated, allowing staff to safely transition back into the center. The RECC returned to full operational capability at 7 PM that night. A full plan to prevent such an incident from happening again is in the works.
Street power was fully restored to the Emergency Communications Center on February 27 at 5 PM.
The Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office extends its appreciation to our partner agencies, staff and outside agencies whose rapid response and professionalism ensured uninterrupted emergency services throughout the storm-related outage. These agencies included the Barnstable Multi Agency Coordination Center, the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services, the Southeast Ma Regional Emergency Communications Center, the Barnstable Police, the Mass State Police and all the Barnstable County Fire Departments.
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Sheriff Donna Buckley issued the following statement to all their partner agencies: Dear Regional Partner Agencies and Public Safety Colleagues,
On behalf of the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office and our Regional 9-1-1 Emergency Communications Center, I extend my sincere gratitude for your swift and unwavering support during the recent failure of both our primary and backup power systems.
Your immediate response, resourcefulness, and coordinated assistance ensured that essential emergency communications remained uninterrupted. Moments like these highlight the critical value of our regional partnerships and the strength of our shared commitment to public safety. The professionalism and collaboration demonstrated by your teams reflect the very best of our region’s emergency services.
Please accept my heartfelt thanks for standing with us during this challenging incident. Your support made a meaningful difference for our dispatchers, first responders, and the communities we collectively serve.
We are proud to work alongside such dedicated partners, and we look forward to continuing our collaborative efforts to strengthen the resilience and reliability of public safety services across the region.
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The Sheriff’s Office also released a tabulation of the total incidents handled before and during the blizzard and its aftermath. In the summary, it was noted that the total number of calls for Feb. 16-19 (pre-blizzard) was 73, for Feb. 23-26 (blizzard and three days afterwards) there were 1498 calls for service. Medical calls for the same periods west from 234 to 471 calls for service.
