Storm drives record 33,561 calls to Lithuania emergency centre

LRT reported that Lithuania’s General Assistance Centre (BPC), the country’s emergency call centre, received 33,561 calls over the weekend as a storm hit the country, setting an all-time record.

The centre received 24,427 calls on Saturday, the highest number in a single day in its history. A further 9,134 calls were recorded on Sunday, when the flow remained unusually high.

Saturday’s total was nearly five times higher than on a typical weekend day. The number of calls began rising rapidly from 2 p.m., with the peak recorded between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.

On Sunday, the average answer time was six seconds, and 90.9 percent of calls were answered within eight seconds. The longest wait during the peak period was about two minutes.

Before this weekend, the BPC had received about 9,000 calls in a single day only during exceptional periods, including Lithuania’s Covid-19 lockdown and the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Around 8,000 calls are usually received on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

“This weekend clearly showed the scale of the workload that the General Assistance Centre must be prepared to handle,” said Jelena Montvilienė, deputy head of the BPC. “What we had previously considered an exceptionally high one-day workload was this time the result on Sunday, while on Saturday we received more than two and a half times as many calls. Most importantly, even under these circumstances, the continuity of the BPC’s work was ensured, the system remained stable, and requests for assistance were accepted and passed on to the services.”

After weather forecasters predicted dangerous meteorological conditions, the number of BPC employees working over the weekend was increased by 30 percent.

Despite the record workload, the call-handling system operated continuously and without disruption on Saturday. The average answer time was 58 seconds, 42 percent of calls were answered within eight seconds, and the longest recorded wait was four minutes and 22 seconds.

The BPC advised people not to end a call and dial 112 again if they have to wait. Doing so sends the caller to the back of the queue and may prolong the wait for assistance.

The emergency number 112 should be used when urgent assistance is needed or when a situation poses a real danger to people’s lives, health, property or safety. Electricity outages should be reported to ESO on 1852.

BNS reported that forecasters described Saturday’s storm as the strongest recorded this summer. Electricity supplies were still disrupted for about 129,000 customers on Monday morning.