{"id":74072,"date":"2025-12-11T11:36:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?post_type=podcast&p=74072"},"modified":"2025-12-11T11:36:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:36:53","slug":"north-carolina-next-generation-911-hurricane-helene","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/radio\/north-carolina-next-generation-911-hurricane-helene\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Friends’ helped North Carolina 911’s call centers withstand Hurricane Helene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was thanks to \u201cfriends\u201d that North Carolina\u2019s 911 system managed to keep the state\u2019s emergency call centers open during last year\u2019s Hurricane Helene. Pokey Harris, executive director of the North Carolina 911 Board, says that the state\u2019s next-generation 911 system relies on a system in which 911 centers are paired with partner call centers, or \u201cfriends,\u201d that can take their calls in case they\u2019re knocked offline. In the case of Helene, 19 emergency call centers were knocked offline, proving the wisdom of that arrangement. \u201cAs the weather forecasts began to intensify, we began encouraging the 911 centers to have a broader outreach. And they did,\u201d Harris says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s top stories:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The nonprofit Center for Civic Futures on Tuesday announced<\/a> it will award $8.5 million to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence projects designed to improve public benefits programs over the next two years. The group has named eight projects it will support, including a multi-state cohort to improve AI tools that can verify work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid benefits and a project with Maryland\u2019s labor department and the Harvard Kennedy School to improve the state\u2019s unemployment insurance system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Jersey officials have announced<\/a> the creation of the New Jersey Civilian Cyber Resilience Corps, a volunteer group of cybersecurity experts who will assist with not only incident response, but hardening the security postures of those organizations throughout the state that need it most. :It\u2019s easier to keep Humpty Dumpty on the wall than to put him back together again,” said Michael Geraghty, New Jersey’s chief information security officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, federal lawmakers shared the bill text<\/a> of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2026, which did not feature the contentious state artificial intelligence law moratorium it had been rumored to include. However, federal efforts to rein in state and local authority over the technology aren\u2019t dead just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New episodes of StateScoop\u2019s<\/em> Priorities Podcast<\/em><\/a> are posted each Wednesday. For more of the latest news and trends across the state and local government technology community, subscribe to the Priorities Podcast on<\/em> Apple Podcasts<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Google Podcasts<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>Soundcloud<\/em><\/a> or<\/em> Spotify<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pokey Harris, excecutive director of the North Carolina 911 Board, says the redundancy built into the state’s next-generation 911 system helped the state withstand outages during a major hurricane last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":74074,"template":"","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":null,"display_author_bio":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4677],"tags":[202,226,2943,23544,25178,25179,26055,26056],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4678],"show":[23743],"class_list":["post-74072","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","tag-emergency-management","tag-north-carolina","tag-2943","tag-next-generation-911-2","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-pokey-harris","tag-emergency-call-centers","tag-public-safety-answering-points","author-statescoop-staff","show-priorities"],"yoast_head":"\n'Friends' helped North Carolina 911's call centers withstand Hurricane Helene | 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