Emergency call service was disrupted across Louisiana and Mississippi on Thursday afternoon, officials said, citing damage to fiber optic lines operated by AT&T.
Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi said that the state’s Emergency Management Agency had received reports that AT&T was responding to “a series of fiber cuts,” which he said had interrupted service in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
Scott Simmons, a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said there were no indications of foul play, and that AT&T was investigating the incident.
“Our teams have dispatched and are working as quickly as possible to repair multiple fiber cuts, affecting 9-1-1 service for some customers in Louisiana and Mississippi,” AT&T said in a statement. “We understand how important these services are and appreciate the patience of our customers.”
Jay Vise, a spokesman for the Orleans Parish Communication District in New Orleans, said the outage began just after 1:30 p.m. local time because of “a cut of fiber optic line” in Mississippi that supports 911 calls regionally. That disruption, he said, caused an outage there and in Louisiana.
Officials in Alabama did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Agencies across the affected states said that the public should call local law enforcement agencies in case of an emergency. Some law enforcement officials shared 10-digit numbers on social media on Thursday.
The emergency call center in Orleans Parish, La., which includes New Orleans, was back online by 4 p.m. local time, Mr. Vise said. It was not immediately clear if service to emergency call centers in other parts of Louisiana had also been restored.
Mr. Simmons said that several counties across Mississippi, including Warren, Lafayette and Simpson Counties, reported that their emergency operation centers were back online by 4 p.m. local time.
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