Metro Ambulance Service

⚠️ WEATHER ALERT FOR MERIDIAN & LAUDERDALE COUNTY ⚠️

The National Weather Service has expanded the Significant (Level 3) Flash Flood Threat across much of southeastern Mississippi, including the Meridian area. Forecasts indicate the potential for 4-7 inches of rainfall, with locally higher amounts possible in a short period of time. Widespread flash flooding, flooded roadways, and water rescues may become necessary overnight into Thursday.

In addition to the flooding threat, this tropical system may also produce brief, weak tornadoes, especially during the overnight and early morning hours.

🚑 Metro Ambulance Service is actively monitoring conditions and has increased staffing levels with additional ambulances and supervisory personnel positioned throughout Lauderdale County to ensure the quickest possible response to emergencies.

Please take the following precautions:
✅ Monitor local weather alerts throughout the night.
✅ Have multiple ways to receive emergency warnings.
✅ Avoid unnecessary travel during heavy rainfall.
✅ Never drive through flooded roadways — Turn Around, Don’t Drown.
✅ Seek shelter immediately if a tornado warning is issued.

Our Communications Center, EMS crews, and supervisors will remain on heightened readiness throughout the event.

Metro Ambulance Service
Proudly Serving the City of Meridian and Lauderdale County Since 1980 🚑🌧️⛈️

Have you ever wanted to make a difference in your community? Here’s your opportunity to begin a rewarding career in Emergency Medical Services!

Metro Ambulance Service is offering an EMT Class beginning August 4, 2026.

📅 Application Deadline:
June 26, 2026 at 5:00 PM

📚 Class Schedule:
• Tuesdays & Thursdays
• 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
• Metro Ambulance Service Classroom

As an EMT, you’ll gain the skills and knowledge needed to provide life-saving care to those in need while serving your community with pride.

Whether you’re looking for a new career, a way to serve others, or a stepping stone into healthcare, this class is for you!

📧 To apply or for more information:
Kay Chambers
[email protected]

Join a team that has proudly served Lauderdale County since 1980.

🚑 Your Community. Your Mission. Your Future.

We had such a great time !!!

It was a honor to be apart of this mornings event honoring Officer Croom.

Metro Ambulance Service was proud to be a part of College 4 Kids at MCC and the opportunity to spend time with such an amazing group of students! Our team enjoyed teaching the children about EMS, emergency medical care, ambulance operations, and the important role first responders play in our communities.

Watching their curiosity, enthusiasm, and eagerness to learn was truly rewarding. We hope we inspired a few future healthcare professionals and first responders along the way!

Thank you to the organizers, staff, and students for welcoming us and allowing us to share what we do. Investing in our youth today helps build stronger communities for tomorrow.

❤️🚑 We had a wonderful time and look forward to participating again in the future!

LEMA rolls out new alert system

Residents of Lauderdale County will have a new way to receive emergency alerts and community notifications as the Lauderdale County Emergency Management Agency rolls out a new alerts system.
LEMA Director Odie Barrett said the new system, Regroup, has several advantages over Nixle, which the county currently uses for emergency alerts. One of the main improvements is the ability to target emergency alerts for specific areas of the county.
Under the current system, Barrett said, a tornado warning for Collinsville would alert everyone in Lauderdale County. Now, emergency officials can limit notifications to those in the path of the storm.
“Here it will send out alerts only to the people who are in the polygon area that the National Weather Service has drawn as far as the affected area,” he said. “So, we’re not waking everybody up in the county at two o’clock in the morning with a mass notification when it’s not in their area.”
The new system will also allow the county to phase out use of tornado sirens. Barrett said the county’s network of sirens needs repair, and it would cost taxpayers roughly $40,000 to get them all back into working order. The sirens themselves, however, don’t reach everyone and aren’t as effective as modern mass notification systems.
Lauderdale County residents wanting to receive alerts are asked to sign up by following the QR code on the signup flier. A link will also be live on the agency’s website, lemaonline.com, in the near future.
Residents currently signed up for alerts through Nixle will also need to register for the new system.
“We’ll have it set up to where you can come into our system and select what all you get your alerts from,” he said. “So, our major emergency alerts and weather alerts, if it reaches a criteria, we can send that out to everybody.”
In addition to emergency alerts, Barrett said residents can opt in to receive community alerts about events and other things going on throughout the county and even choose to have the system call their house phone if they still have a landline.
LEMA plans to continue operating the Nixle system as well through August before beginning to phase it out, Barrett said. After that, the county will transition completely over to Regroup.

Metro Ambulance recognized by Meridian City Council

The Meridian City Council on Tuesday congratulated Metro Ambulance personnel for receiving awards for outstanding service to the Meridian and Lauderdale County community.
Emergency Medical Technician James Joseph and Advanced Emergency Medical Technician Mushula Tubby were named EMT of the Year and AEMT of the Year earlier this year at the annual EMS Gala hosted by the Mississippi Center for Advancement of Prehospital Medicine.
“That says a lot because it’s coming from the entire state, and people who knew them in other places voted for them because they know how hard these two guys work,” said Kevin Smith, executive director of Metro Ambulance.
Smith said both men were previously chosen by their peers as EMT of the Year and AEMT of the year for Metro as well.
Joseph, who has worked at Metro for more than 19 years, is known for his dedication and compassion. He always has a positive attitude and is calm no matter how bad the situation gets, Smith said.
“James is a trusted team member who always puts the needs of others first,” he said.
Joseph is also instrumental in training new Metro employees, bringing patience and understanding that others can’t provide.
Tubby is known for his servant leadership, Smith said, with a passion for the job and his patients showing in his work. An advanced EMT, Tubby is currently enrolled in paramedic school, where he was elected class president by his peers.
“As a mentor and an advocate for EMS he encourages recruits and future providers while representing the profession with pride and professionalism,” Smith said.
Both Joseph and Tubby are highly respected by their patients, peers and supervisors, and both have proven to have a strong work ethic and dedication to their craft. Smith said the two can be counted on to do what they need to do when they need to do it.
“If we could clone these two guys up here, their immediate supervisors would love every day because they know they’re going to be there,” he said. “They don’t call out.”
Joseph said he’s honored to be named EMT of the Year and appreciates the almost two decades he has been able to serve the Lauderdale County community through Metro.
“Thank you for the opportunity to serve this great community,” he said.
While the award has his name on it, Tubby said there is a crowd of people who played a part in him being named AEMT of the Year.
“I’m truly humbled, honored, proud, everything, but we wouldn’t be able to do this job without the Metro team, the Meridian Police Department, Meridian Fire Department and everybody that’s involved in patient care,” he said.