Winter Weather Continues to Wreak Havoc on East Coast Utilities

(I-Newswire) March 16, 2010 - Columbus, Ohio, March 16, 2010: The east coast was hit again this past weekend with what seems like a never-ending rash of bad weather. Today, utility crews up and down the east coast are cleaning up from four inches of rain and wind gusts exceeding 70 mph, resulting in loss of power to hundreds of thousands of customers in Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Since January, the east coast has been battered by two massive snow storms, the west coast had a weekend of heavy rain and mudslides, and Texas witnessed a rare snow fall. According to Jim Kennedy Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC) chief executive officer this winter has been one of the busiest in company history. “These weather events alone accounted for almost 2.5 million customer calls through our High Volume Call Answering system and our Emergency Notification Solution.” “We worked around the clock again this past weekend to support numerous utilities and public safety agencies impacted by the heavy rain and wind” Kennedy added.

One of the biggest problems utilities face after a storm like last weekend’s, is responding to the massive number of calls from customers reporting a power outage. To solve this problem, most utilities use a High Volume Call Answering system developed by TFCC. This system helps utilities field the heavy incoming call traffic associated with power outages and uses automation to return restoration information. It also collects outage information and feeds critical data back to the utility so they can quickly assess the outage footprint and efficiently address restoration for their customers.

In addition to heavy incoming calls, dozens of utilities and hundreds of public safety agencies use TFCC‘s outbound notification system to rapidly place high volumes of calls. This system helps verify service restoration, broadcast important storm information to the public, respond to a crisis, provide evacuation warnings, missing person alerts, boil water alerts, and mobilize first responders.

“We’ve been helping utilities and public safety agencies handle high call volumes for more than 20 years and this winter tops them all” Kennedy concluded.

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About Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC)
By using technology to connect people to information, TFCC solutions quickly receive and send high volumes of time-sensitive communications to the right people at the right time, using most any communication device.

For more than 20 years their suite of web-based, high-speed notification solutions have been the industry standard. Backed by the largest and most reliable telecommunications network in North America, TFCC’s inbound & outbound communication technology is currently in place at over 80 electric utilities as well as hundreds of public safety and government agencies, universities, corporations and health care facilities.

TFCC’s mission is to deliver superior customer service, relentless reliability and innovative technology that connect people when it matters most.

For more information please visit www.tfcci.com.

About Twenty First Century Communications:
About Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC)
By using technology to connect people to information, TFCC solutions quickly receive and send high volumes of time-sensitive communications to the right people at the right time, using most any communication device.

For more than 20 years their suite of web-based, high-speed notification solutions have been the industry standard. Backed by the largest and most reliable telecommunications network in North America, TFCC’s inbound & outbound communication technology is currently in place at over 80 electric utilities as well as hundreds of public safety and government agencies, universities, corporations and health care facilities.

TFCC’s mission is to deliver superior customer service, relentless reliability and innovative technology that connect people when it matters most.

For more information please visit www.tfcci.com.

Company Contact Information
Twenty First Century Communications
John Rhind
750 Communications Parkway
43214
Phone : 614-442-1215