Reporter: Liza Danver
New Media Producer: Kerry Corum
For dispatchers, the morning of November 6th remains a blurred memory of frantic calls, from both victims and first responders.
"Stay on the line, let me connect you to the ambulance service."
In the early morning hours of third shift at Vanderburgh County Dispatch, the phones are usually quite. But that wasn't the case at this hour, one year ago Monday.
Hundreds of calls came in; people wondering what happened, others needing help.
For dispatcher Kelly Nurrenbern, one call stands out among the rest. "This was like nothing we've ever done before."
It was the night of November 6th, 2005. "I still hear that little girl's voice. Sometimes it pops up out of the blue."
Kelly says she tried to console the girl in the few minutes they were on the phone together.
911 Dispatcher: "Where are you?"
Girl: "In the house - and it's crushing my Mommy."
911 Dispatcher: "You're at Eastbrook?"
Girl: "Yes and the tornado hit and we're down - and my mom's stuck."
911 Dispatcher: "They're trying to get there. The roads are all messed up."
Girl:"Okay, I'm just really scared, because my mom is squished."
Kelly tells 14 News, "I wanted to stay on the phone with her and keep reassuring her until help got there, But at that point, we weren't really sure when they'd be able to get on scene."
And the calls started backing up; more tornado victims who needed help.
Kelly says, "The switchboard lit-up. It was call after call."
While Vanderburgh dispatchers were busy handling frantic Eastbrook Residents, Warrick County was dealing with its own crisis - damage to dozens of Newburgh homes, businesses and roads.
And their 911 system temporarily went down. Warrick County dispatcher Jeannie Dremstedt remembers clearly, "It was total chaos."
Vanderburgh County took on Warrick County's 911 calls, until the system was back up. And once the phones were working again, Warrick dispatchers say they too started taking calls non stop.
Dispatcher Jeannie Dremstedt says, "We got calls that trees had gone through houses and parts of the houses were gone and on and on. It was just unreal."
But probably, the most emotional call for dispatchers came from a member of their tightly-knit law enforcement team. A local officer lost a family member in the tornado. Jeannie tells us, "His niece had been killed, and his brother was seriously hurt, and that was probably the worst."
Dispatchers in both counties say the calls concerning death and serious injuries are always the hardest to take. And on November 6th, those distressing calls continued coming in, one right after another.
Caller: "We got people trapped in these trailers out here."
911 Dispatcher: "Sir, we've got everybody coming as quickly as they can."
Caller: "We've got people screaming everywhere."
Warrick County dispatcher Deborah Day recalls, "It's a night that I don't ever want to have to go through again."
But dispatchers know, there's no guarantees at a job where a single phone call can change your life.
Dispatchers in both Vanderburgh and Warrick Counties say the stress of last year's tornado brought them closer together as a team.
