Officials say 911 emergency lines are back up in Mississippi and Louisiana
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — 911 systems across Mississippi and Louisiana are back online after going down Thursday afternoon, an AT&T spokesperson said.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said AT&T was reporting damage to some of its fiber optic lines and that was affecting 911 services across the state. Across Louisiana, 911 phone lines were also down for some time. The state’s most populous cities, including Baton Rouge and New Orleans, reported emergency system outages Thursday afternoon.
“We understand how important these services are and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” an AT&T spokesperson wrote in an email.
Initial reports of outages were circulating around 2 p.m. local time in Mississippi. By 4:45 p.m. local time, AT&T reported that service had been restored.
Karl Fasold, executive director of Orleans Communication District, told The AP that systems were being restored following what he described as an “accidental fiber cut.”
Law enforcement agencies across both states took to social media, urging people to call local phone numbers if they were experiencing an emergency.
Mike Steele, spokesperson for the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said the agency “is standing by if there are any requests for and there have been no requests for local support from our parishes at this time.”
“Nothing I’ve seen indicates a cyberattack,” Steele said.
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office also reported its 911 and non-emergency lines “are down” according to an X post.
The Emergency Communications Center for New Orleans said on their social media page that the outage was due to the cutting of a 911 “fiber line.”
Baton Rouge Mayor Sid Edwards said most parishes in the state were affected by the outage.
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office also reported its 911 and non-emergency lines “are down” according to an X post.
In southwest Louisiana, the Cameron Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness urged people using “cellular devices” to contact a local number for emergencies due to a “massive phone outage.” But the agency said that calls to 911 via a landline “will still go through.”
Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office is one agency where their 911 line was still operational. The department said in a statement that they use the “Next Generation 911” system – which is a “complete overhaul” of the current system, replacing “legacy copper wire technology.”