Tippah County 911 lines are working again after an outage on Thursday, Nov. 5, left the county’s emergency number out of service for a time. A public safety notice the Town of Walnut shared on its official Facebook page at about 1 p.m. Thursday first warned residents that 911 calls in Tippah County weren’t going through. An update on the same post later said, “Great news 911 lines are back working!!!”
The notice said the proper departments had been told about the problem and were working on it. While 911 was down, residents were asked to call 662-837-9336, extension 2. That’s the main line for the Tippah County Sheriff’s Office at 205 W. Spring St. in Ripley.
What Happened With Tippah County 911
As of Thursday evening, no official cause for the outage had been released, and the post didn’t say how long the lines were down. The notice apologized for the inconvenience. Tippah News will update this story if county officials or the sheriff’s office share more about what caused it or what’s being done to keep it from happening again.
Outages like this can happen when phone carriers, network equipment, or the routing systems that send 911 calls to the right dispatch center have problems. That’s why local agencies usually share a backup 10-digit number as soon as an outage is confirmed.
What to Do If 911 Goes Down Again
The lines are back up, but now is a good time to make a plan in case it happens again. Emergency managers commonly recommend these steps:
Save the backup number. Put the Tippah County Sheriff’s Office line, 662-837-9336, in your phone contacts so you can find it quickly.
Still try 911 first. In a real emergency, dial 911. If the call won’t connect or you get a busy signal, call the backup number right away.
Know your local numbers. Keep the numbers for your town’s police department and fire department handy, especially if you live in Ripley, Walnut, Blue Mountain, or Falkner.
Watch official pages. Town, city, and county Facebook pages and text alert systems are often the first to post outage notices and updates.
Share the word. Make sure elderly relatives and neighbors know the backup number, too.
Walnut Keeps Residents Informed
The Town of Walnut has been especially active on Facebook this week. It has posted updates on changes to the town’s fire protection and a public meeting about the new fire department. Residents across Tippah County helped spread Thursday’s 911 notice by sharing it on social media.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
