Oakland County is helping neighboring Macomb County get back online after a fire last week.
That suspected electrical fire seriously damaged Macomb’s IT department—shutting down phones and computer networks.
So Oakland County is offering Macomb staff, equipment and space to start re-building.
“Oakland County has opened up its data center to host Macomb County’s equipment and personnel on a temporary basis in order to get Macomb County back online,” says a press release from Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson’s office.
Patterson says Macomb is now partially back online, but full restoration will take some time.
“They’re not going to be fully up and running for at least the next six months,” Patterson says. “I think they’re going to need our equipment and services to get launched.”
Patterson says the help is the least his county can do for “a neighbor in distress.”
“We have an emergency situation next door,” says Patterson. “And I really do believe that if it had been the other way around, Mark would be sending his people.”
“Mark” is Macomb County executive Mark Hackel, who says Oakland County’s help gives the his county a way to restore basic county functions while Macomb speeds up building a new communications center. That project was already underway before last week’s fire.
Officials expect to restore full networking service later this week. In the meantime, many county departments are reverting back to analog procedures to keep things functioning.
