UPDATE: City Phone Systems Are Back On Line

City Hall, the Police Department, the Department of Public Works and other city buildings were without telephone service Wednesday because of a widespread AT&T outage in the Midwest.

Most critically, the 911 emergency system working, and the city was never without emergency call service, said Assistant Fire Chief Jim Case. Early in the day, some 911 calls were rerouted through other jurisdictions, he said, but no calls failed to get through.

Just before noon, the main non-emergency number for the Police Department, 414-471-8430, was still not working, but a backup number, 414-471-8444, was working. Callers in non-emergency situations should use that number and under no circumstances should anyone call 911 just to get through with a non-emergency situation.

The Fire Department is on a separate phone system and did not lose service, Case said.

Case said that the city's information technology supervisor had informed him this morning that AT&T had reported phone systems down in a wide swatch stretching from St. Louis to Michigan, and obviously in Milwaukee.

City Hall offices encourage citizens to use e-mail, listed on the city website, to reach city staff in the event of a phone failure. This link will take you to the staff directory, then click on a department to find the e-mail link for the person you are trying to reach.