Reaching a dispatcher, and which line to use

Three numbers serve these five counties, one for each region, and they are not interchangeable. Picking the right one saves a transfer at a moment when nobody wants to be transferred. This page sets out which line covers which county, what a dispatcher will ask for, and what can be gathered while you wait for the callback.

Which line covers which county

The first line is the only one that handles fire, and it handles water in Crittenden County alone. The Mountain Home line and the Arkansas River Valley line are water lines. Nothing on any of them can be stretched to cover a type of damage that county was not bought for.

There is also a dispatch email address for anything that is not urgent: a question about coverage, a request to be routed for scheduled work, or a follow-up. Email is not the way to report a loss in progress.

1. You callOne number per county. The dispatcher takes the address, the ZIP and a short description of what happened.
2. A local crew calls backAn independent restoration contractor already working that county rings you directly and sets a time.
3. They look, then scope itNothing is priced from a phone call. The crew walks the building, takes readings, and writes a scope you can hand to your adjuster.

What a dispatcher asks

That last one matters more than it sounds. In the January 2009 ice storm that hit Baxter County, roughly 350,000 Arkansas customers were without power at the peak and about 100,000 were still dark a week later. A landline in a dark house is not much use, and the callback needs a number somebody will actually answer.

• The street address, and the town, because routing is by county before anything else.
• What happened and roughly when it started.
• Whether the power is off at the panel and whether the water is shut off at the meter or the main.
• Whether anyone is still in the building, and whether the fire department or a plumber has already been there.
• A callback number that works if the house has no power.

What to do while waiting for the callback

For water, stop the source if it is safe to reach: the meter, the main, the supply valve behind the appliance. Move what can be lifted off wet flooring and get anything paper or fabric up onto something dry. Photograph rooms before moving much, because a photograph taken at the worst moment is worth more later than one taken after tidying.

For fire, stay out until the department releases the building, and do not run the heating or air conditioning. A system that circulates once through a smoke-damaged house pulls soot into ductwork and into rooms the fire never reached. That is how a fire confined to one room ends up costing a whole house.

When a call falls outside coverage

A water call from Jonesboro or any other Craighead County town, and a fire call from Mountain Home, Cotter, Gassville, Van Buren, Alma, Cedarville, Mulberry, Ozark or Charleston, cannot be routed on this line. A dispatcher will say so rather than take details there is no crew for. Local fire departments, city utility offices and insurers all keep their own contractor lists, and those are the better next stop.

Questions people actually ask

None of this replaces a walk-through. It is here so the walk-through makes sense when it happens.