The storms that ripped through metro Atlanta on Thursday not only knocked out power and trees and caused some house fires, but also resulted in the loss of communication within the Forsyth County 911 dispatch center.

Sheriff Ted Paxton tells WSB they believe the overall cause was weather-related, since it happened around 3:30 p.m. at the height of the storms.

"During the course of that storm, we lost all communications within the 911 center.  All the consoles went down, the 911 lines themselves have been sporadically working," said Paxton.

As a result, they put in place the sheriff's office mobile command center to handle the 911 calls.

“AT&T has done some emergency switching of our phone lines and 911 calls are being sent to the Hall County 911 center, which is then relaying the calls back to us here at the mobile command center and allowing us to dispatch fire and sheriff's office personnel to the emergency calls," said Paxton.

While they have determined the source of the problem, the 911 mobile command center will remain open through 9 a.m. Friday.  From there, they will reassess the situation to determine if new equipment must be ordered or installed.