PHOENIX — Valley first responders kept heading out emergency calls Thursday despite a widespread Microsoft outage that disrupted email and other communications for local departments and agencies.
“Our dispatch to trucks going out to serving our community members if they call 911, none of that's been affected,” Captain Mike Johnson with the Phoenix Fire Department said.
With email down Thursday, the department directed residents to its official account on X for updates.
“Just a message to our community, our emergency response is fully operational,” Captain Johnson said. “And to get any updates, you can follow our official X account, and we'll be posting any information on there.”
Microsoft reported issues with Exchange Online mailboxes and Microsoft Teams. The Phoenix, Glendale, Gilbert, Tempe and Surprise police departments all reported disruptions for administrative staff but said emergency services were not affected.
Microsoft said in a social media post late Thursday that it was restoring some affected servers. Some systems began coming back online that evening.
“We had to do a lot more running around, word of mouth, talking to each other rather than just email,” Alex Stratton, Phoenix, said. “And so, you know, it's for us, it's been out all day. So I imagine when I go in tomorrow, it's just going to be a flood of emails.”
For Stratton and another court employee, the outage changed the day's workflow.
“We get notifications of any filings in the cases through email,” Maria Rubio, Phoenix, said. “And so, if an attorney filed anything or they needed to let us know anything, we just weren't able to find out.”
The Superior Court said hearings continued throughout the day, while the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office conducted work over the phone.
At Arizona State University, staff told ABC15 they relied on Slack to communicate.
For patients in Valley health care systems, the standard of care didn't change.
Phoenix Children’s said its clinical systems do not run on Microsoft. At HonorHealth, patient needs continued to be met through MyChart and Epic.
“It does sort of you know raise the question of what happens when you know other platforms are potentially disrupted,” Dr. Nina Shah, HonorHealth Chief Medical and Clinical Strategy Officer, said. “Importantly, at HonorHealth, we prepare for those situations, and so it's incredibly important to us that our physicians, our nurses, our care teams are able to deliver care seamlessly.”
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