Dial 9-1-1 and you expect an almost instant answer. That’s the way the system is designed to work in emergencies.

But neither 9-1-1 nor Warwick Police were prepared for what happened between 6 and 8 a.m. Aug. 4 when a severe storm downed trees and wires, flooded streets and cut power to 121,000 National Grid customers.

“How do you predict something like this?” asked Lt. Col. Kevin Barry, commanding officer of the Rhode Island Department of Public Safety that oversees 9-1-1.

Barry was out of state when the storm hit, but from reports he said the volume of calls was off the charts. In the two-hour period, 9-1-1 received 1,155 calls, nearly as much as it gets during a 24-hour period. A staff of six was managing the center at that point, and in Barry’s words, “They were flat out.”

Of the total calls, 983 were entered into the system, meaning that the other callers hung up before an operator was able to reach them.

On average, he said, calls were answered on Aug. 4 within 116 seconds and the longest wait for any caller who didn’t hang up was 260 seconds.

Barry said that virtually all the calls related to the storm.

Col. Stephen McCartney said yesterday Warwick Police experienced a similar deluge of calls ranging from reports of trees that had been brought down on houses and vehicles to impassable streets because of flooding and downed trees.

Fire Chief Edmund Armstrong said yesterday he can’t think of an incident when the department got as many calls in a short time. He said that between 5:30 a.m. and noon on Aug. 4 the department received 149 calls, or about four times the normal amount. Almost all calls related to storm damage, including sparking wires, trees falling on houses and downed trees.

McCartney said it usually takes him eight minutes to get to the station, but on Aug. 4 he kept being forced to detour his customary route. He made it to the station in 40 minutes. Meanwhile, he monitored police radio transmissions and made calls to keep the outgoing shift on duty while calling in every available officer.

“I was listening to it all and was concerned for those trapped in their homes and cars. We didn’t know what we would find,” he said.

According to the records division, the station received 109 calls between 6 and 8 a.m.

The chief put the rate of calls at three times what is customary, adding that when he checked on call responses at 9 a.m. there was a backlog of 130 calls.

“As people were coming in [reporting for duty], we were just putting them on the street,” he said.

As the storm subsided, police turned attention to detouring traffic from blocked streets and directing traffic at key intersections that had lost signalization.

Causing a significant snafu was the closure of Route 95 due to flooding that diverted traffic onto Warwick streets. By 11 a.m. Route 95 had reopened, relieving some of the pressure on city streets.

Barry said in preparation for storm events, 9-1-1 will bring in added operators, telling them to expect a heavier-than-usual rate of calls and be prepared to stick it out for the duration. Often, he said, those cases don’t turn out to be as bad as they could be because people take precautions.

He said the 9-1-1 call center will experience blips in calls when scores of callers report the same accident on Route 95, for example. This wasn’t the case on Aug. 4, as callers were reporting multiple incidents.

Barry said the center has looked at ways to streamline calls while ensuring prompt assistance.

He said, “People want to talk to a person,” adding that frequently callers can understandably be confused and don’t know exactly where they are. He said the process is “constantly being evaluated” but on Aug. 4 it was “fast and furious.”

“Fortunately, from what I know, it went pretty well,” he said.