The Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi emergency officials say work is ahead of schedule on a $221 million statewide emergency radio system.
Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps, who chairs the 16-member Wireless Communications Commission, says it will be a few months before the system is operational in all areas of the Gulf Coast.
The system allows officials to communicate from the Alabama to Louisiana state lines.
Communication among emergency personnel and agencies came to a virtual standstill after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of southern Mississippi in 2005.