re: What if you called 911 and got a recording? It happened 839 times in a 2-week period

Well it's not just New Orleans. I've called 911 4 different times in my life and every time the call was over I was thankful it wasn't a life or death situation.

Nothing worse than having to call 911 to report something and have to play 200 questions with the thing on the other end. Maybe it's because police/fire depts have stopped answering their general line and send it all to 911. So 911 is basically the emergency room where everyone has to go regardless of 'emergency'.