Surge Knocks Out Radio System

The Broward County public safety radio network was knocked off-the-air for about 90 minutes at 5 a.m. because of power surges, officials said. Very few incidents were reported during the outage, and any requiring immediate dispatch were relayed to units via cellular phone. Sheriff’s officials said they recalled deputies to their sub-stations, where they waited to be dispatched to any incidents. After handling an incident, they returned to the station to await other incidents. Fire and EMS units were similarly dispatched, officials said. The radio system supports not only county units, but Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale and several other smaller jurisdictions. The county operates a Motorola-built 800 MHz trunked radio system.