COUNTY, JACKSON 911 INTERRUPTED

JACKSON, Mo. -- If anyone had an emergency around Jackson early Thursday, police, firefighters and sheriff's deputies may not know about it.

An electrical malfunction during an upgrade at a Southwestern Bell switching station cut phone service for five hours to all Cape Girardeau County numbers beginning with a 243 or 204 prefix, said David Hitt, county emergency management operations director.

This left the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department and Jackson's police and firefighters without phones.

"We had no dial tone, nothing," Capt. Ruth Ann Dickerson of the sheriff's department said. "It was completely dead."

As far as officials know, no one attempted a 911 call from about 3 a.m. to 8 a.m. while lines were out of service.

"We didn't have any calls that we are aware of," said Capt. Bob Hull of Jackson police. "But really we have no way of knowing unless someone calls us now saying they couldn't get through."

But this didn't eliminate 911 service altogether, said Kim Amelunke, communications director for Cape Girardeau police and fire. If any Jackson or rural county residents had dialed 911 on a cellular phone, the call would have been directed to either an operator with the Missouri State Highway Patrol in Poplar Bluff, Mo., or Cape Girardeau police.

"Anyone else was stuck," Amelunke said.

The phone outage was reported to the sheriff's department by Southwestern Bell after 4 a.m., Dickerson said. Service was restored about four hours later. Most sheriff's department communication during the break in service was through radios.

The outage also affected approximately 11,000 customers, said Michelle Johnson of Southwestern Bell.

Hitt said a new phone system is being installed in county offices in stages, and work at the county administration building was completed recently. It allows county office phones to operate from switching stations in either Cape Girardeau or Jackson as needed.

Within a week, the sheriff's department should have the new system installed, Hitt said.

However, Jackson police will continue operations with a phone system that was installed a year ago, Hull said. Thursday's break in service will give his department a chance ponder upgrades, he said.

"This woke us up a little," Hull said.