When seconds mattered the most, deputies in Florida were faced with a 911 call that left them trying to locate a young woman trapped underwater in her car.

That crisis had 21 News questioning if our 911 systems here in the Valley are equipped to locate someone immediately in a similar situation.

In Hillsborough County, Florida, 20-year-old Amanda Antonio called 911 for help when a car cut her off and her vehicle flipped over and began to fill up with water.  She was trapped and deputies did not know her exact location.

Eventually, the dispatcher was able to get Antonio to calm down and the young woman said she was going to look on Google Maps for a better location.

They ultimately found her in 20 minutes.

Antonio said, “I didn’t think I was going to make it out.”

The longtime Executive Director of Mahoning County's 911 Center Maggie McGee says, she believes something like that would not  happen here because of the work that's been put into building a solid database of addresses, locations and the continuous upgrades and overhauls that have been made to keep Mahoning County’s 911 technologically up to date.

“We do put in the location of lakes, we do put in private roads.  We call them dirt roads, we put those in the database because somebody could literally be on it fishing and fall in and how would you find them?  They can’t tell you a road, there is no road,” McGee said

Mahoning County’s 911 Executive Director also says what happened in Florida highlights why here at home what’s called the “Next Generation 911” system not only calls for putting in the address but the location of ponds, lakes, and rivers, as well as highways and even fields.  

McGee says along with addresses they put in latitudes and longitudes because if you are out in the middle of a field that has no address and have a tractor accident they have to know how to get to you.  

The 911 Director even goes out to industrial parks to find out what buildings are no longer occupied and what businesses are operational in the event of an industrial accident so that first responders know how to access the buildings.

Currently, Mahoning County is in the process of a multi-million dollar upgrade to its 911 system that will allow dispatchers to receive text messages from those needing help, as well as pictures and video.  The system will also allow dispatchers to pinpoint a better location of the caller.

"People in emergencies don't tell you everything.  You have to understand you're in a panic situation.  So our database has to be able to pick up on anything, even if it's just a little bit. It has to be able to pick it up. So that's how we built the 911 system here. If it's just a little bit of information, it should pull up something," McGee said.

Trumbull County's 911 Center says currently in some cases they can locate an emergency caller within a mile, or within as little as 50 feet.

Mahoning County's 911 director says she's not familiar with Florida's 911 system but many communities face the challenge of paying for updagres to their systems when there are no grants available.