Hillsborough County Emergency Agent Exhausted

Stan Castlebury, an employee with the Hillsborough County Emergency Management Department, has been on duty non-stop since Monday morning and says he’s exhausted.

“Thank you for holding. All of our agents are assisting other callers. Please hold and an agent will be with you momentarily,” he said. “I’ve been saying that to people on the phone every 30 seconds since 10:10AM Monday morning. That means I’ve said it about 12,000 times so far. It is satisfying in that I know I’m doing important work but my throat is sore and I’m getting kind of tired.”

The disclaimer, heard by people calling the Hillsborough County Storm Information and Help Line at (833) 427-8676 and placed on hold, is believed by most people to be a pre-recorded message.

“I take that as both a compliment and an insult,” he said. “It’s flattering that people think my delivery is so consistently polished that it must be a recording. On the other hand, what the hell, man?!? I’m here, doing the work. I’m not doing it for personal glory but a little credit would be nice.”

“Plus, I fail to see how it would be a good use of county resources to sit down and participate in a fancy recording session in some state-of-the-art sound studio when I can just do the job,” he added.

Castlebury is one of only two people in his specific division within the department.

“I only have one other co-worker. Javier, who’s doing the same thing in Spanish,” he said. “You can hear him by presionando uno.”