Vicksburg Warren 911 dispatchers, the silent heroes

VICKSBURG, MS. – The bus tragedy on I-20 early Saturday morning shook the Vicksburg and Warren County communities. As the calls about the accident began to pour in, the Vicksburg Warren 911 dispatcher team, four Warren County women, worked to keep the effort organized. They received the calls, dispatched them, verbally organized with each other, and typed in information all at the same time.

We arrived a few minutes before our scheduled meeting with the dispatchers who were on duty Saturday. They were back on shift together and we felt it important to get their story. We were rung into the building and the transition from the late summer thickness where summer and fall collide into the cool interior felt calming. Our feet lightly echoed down hallway with old newspaper clippings adorning the walls. As we turned the corner into the command room the four ladies on last nights shift were fielding calls, typing, and passing info between them, but it never felt chaotic. The calm that we felt as we entered carried into this space.

It’s a skill-set few can master, that level of calm and controlled work. Even fewer can do all those things while facing tragedy, like an overturned bus “with casualties.”

Stephanie Ramage

The first person to call the Vicksburg Warren 911 Center that evening reported a box truck had overturned. Stephanie Ramage took that call.

“We didn’t know anything at that time. We dispatched a wreck with unknown injuries and he disconnected,” said Ramage. “He called back and another dispatcher answered. He advised that it was a bus and there were people getting out. They were from Guatemala on their way to Dallas.”

Ramage has been employed with 911 for six months. The first two months were all training, so she has effectively been dispatching for about 4 months.

“I heard over the radio it was a mass casualty event. Then it got really real at that point,” explained Ramage. “I was a little shaken up. It got really difficult, especially when they advised they got children out.”

First responders who worked the accident said it was the biggest event they’ve ever faced. As a new dispatcher, Ramage realized it may be the biggest call she’ll ever work. A humble Ramage said, “I have a great supervisor that helped me stay calm since it was so big. She helped me through a lot of it.”

Samantha Barnes was the supervisor on shift that night.

Samantha Barnes

Barnes has been a dispatcher for 13 years, and a supervisor for the last five years.

That evening, Barnes worked like a conductor in an orchestra, working the phones while dispatching and responding to first responders, logging information in real time, and communicating with her team of dispatchers, one of with just one month on the job.

“We didn’t even know it was a passenger bus until the first unit got on scene,” said Barnes. “They advised that it was a possible mass casualty event and to get everybody on their way.”

As it turns out, the passengers were from Guatemala and didn’t speak English. The second person to stop at the accident was able to effectively translate and report to 911.

“I asked them to ask him to ask her how many people were in there. He said about 20 people and one for sure deceased at that time. We knew right then and there this was going to be something,” said Barnes.

Once that information was sent out, numerous agencies engaged. FD-3, Jessica Cade could be heard on the radio communicating with first responders and dispatch to organize assistance. Barnes at 911, in addition to managing a now massively engaged call center, was also on the phone with John Elfer. He is the Executive Director of Emergency Management for Warren County and immediately began to organize resources.

Brianna McKenzie

Brianna McKenzie, 23, has been a Vicksburg Warren 911 dispatcher for just at a month. When we sat down with her, her study guide still laid open on the side of her desk as she fielded calls.

McKenzie admitted to feeling overwhelmed that evening, but was able to rely on her training and assistance from her supervisor.

McKenzie said that she wanted to follow in her father’s footstep and be a Sheriff’s Deputy herself, but her father talked her out of it. Still, she felt a calling to help people.

“This is the one, that I’d like to retire from, this is the line that I need to be in,” McKenzie said, “It’s a calling, I’ve always wanted to be like my daddy. I’ve always wanted to help people, a lot of people say that’s a cheesy line, but I knew it was a calling.”

Her father, Jay McKenzie, is a retired Warren County Sheriff’s officer of thirty-two years.

Thank you, silent heroes

While everybody on duty that evening realize that they will probably never experience a shift like Saturdays, the show as they say, must go on. Calls came in steadily while we were there, and the job of connecting the people in need with the people who can continued. The good people that work in that nondescript building near downtown are the silent heroes of the city.