ST. THOMAS - The new E-911 call center now has an agreement with Puerto Rico to handle emergency calls that are errantly picked up by their cell towers.

On Nov. 24, Mark Walters, V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency executive director, along with Noel Smith, VITEMA operations deputy director, Paul Arnold Jr., information technology acting director and Chan Holder, an emergency call center supervisor, traveled to Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, to meet their counterparts, Carlos Rivera, PR 911 state emergency coordinator, and Javier Eraso, PR 911 security director, to reach an agreement on how to handle emergency calls from the territory.

"If a call comes in from the Virgin Islands, they will call us with the caller on the line," Walters said. "They will stay on until that call is picked up by our dispatcher."

Previously, Puerto Rico authorities had outdated contact numbers and could not properly route emergency calls they received, Walters said.

In October, VITEMA launched a new E-911 call center on St. Thomas, which digitized the emergency calling system. The dispatchers territorywide received training in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hazardous materials, weapons of mass destruction and some basic conversational Spanish. All the dispatchers were to ensure a cohesive, interchangeable process from one island to the next, according to VITEMA.

The state-of-the-art upgrade was part of a $17 million project to launch the 911 system territorywide. The St. Croix emergency system went on line in July.

A few days after the switch to the new system, one problem became apparent. Some cell phone users were not able to access the E-911 system in the territory.

In the case of Terry Drew, when she dialed 911 on Oct. 23, she was routed to Puerto Rico. The operator in Puerto Rico tried to transfer Drew to the V.I. dispatchers but the call disconnected.

Drew had to search for a phone book, then thumb through it to find the main non-emergency number for V.I. police. When she did, she had to plead with the officer who answered to connect her to local emergency responders because her phone was not capable of making the call.

The new set of procedures equips dispatchers in Puerto Rico with steps to ensure fast response to any emergency situation on St. Thomas or St. Croix.

"If a situation happens in the future, the 911 operator has the means of reaching us."

The reason the calls are being picked up by towers in Puerto Rico in the first place is because of coverage dead spots and is not VITEMA-related, Walters said.

Currently the wireless carriers are on a timeline of at least six months to complete a computer link that will provide caller identification to the center.

"It is going to set up a direct link, a live connection," Walters said. "Once it's established it will be a live feed directly to the center."

But the caller identification information is unrelated to the coverage ability of the different wireless providers.

Crystal Davis, Sprint spokeswoman for the region, said the company is within that six-month window to provide the caller identification information and is finalizing their agreement with Innovative, the company that will handle the local exchange information.

Davis said the wireless system is set up to get a signal, any carrier's signal, whenever or wherever a caller attempts to make an emergency call.

"The way E-911 works, when they call 911 it will use the wireless signal of the strongest carrier at that point and time," Davis said.

At the time of Drew's call, the tower in Puerto Rico was the strongest from her location on the West End of the island, Davis said.

Phone calls and e-mails to Rosie Montalvo, the AT&T representative in Puerto Rico were not returned.

The procedures agreed upon by VITEMA and Puerto Rican authorities will ensure that calls quickly get routed to the territory if a cellular phone 911 call is picked up by Puerto Rico towers, Walters said.

"The protocol agreement is a step in the right direction in ensuring emergency needs of every resident and visitor are covered, particularly in those remote areas," Gov. John deJongh Jr. said in a prepared statement. "The protocol agreement also shows how two Caribbean islands can work together to quickly find solutions for a common good."

- Contact reporter Ailene Torres at 774-8772 ext. 304 or e-mail atorres@dailynews.vi.