Everything is back to normal at the Alachua County Call Center... where calls were handled differently for parts of the day on Tuesday and Wednesday.
From 3:30 Tuesday afternoon-- when lightning caused the phone lines to go down-- to 11:30 Wednesday morning ... operators say they had to respond to their own emergency.
Call-takers had to relocate to a backup call center in the basement of the County Administration building.
it took about 50 minutes from the time the phone lines went down... to when things were back up and running in the new location.
In the meantime, Marion County dispatchers took Alachua County calls.
But officials say to their knowledge, there were no delays in service or response time.
"Now we know that no matter what happens, this agency is going to be able to handle it," Jennifer Altenburger said.
Officials say situations like this are great practice for the upcoming hurricane season.
They say if power is lost, they have backup generators... and backup generators to the backup generators-- All to make sure they're still able to respond to all calls.