The 911 emergency services were down across Mississippi and Louisiana on Thursday afternoon. Authorities in Louisiana said that the 911 phone services were back in the state. Soon after, they went up in Mississippi, too.
According to the emergency management authorities in Louisiana and Mississippi, the outage was caused by a major fiber cut in the AT&T line that services the state. Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed that some of AT&T's fiber optic lines were damaged.
"We are assessing now as crews for AT&T are on the ground making repairs," a spokesperson from the EMA was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
The officials had said that the outage was expected to be resolved within a couple of hours. The first report of the fiber cut was reported at 1:35 pm and the repair and restoration of the phone lines would take a "few hours," the Mississippi EMA officials said. They also confirmed that there was no malicious intent behind the cut, but did not disclose what caused it.
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When Will Services Be Back Up?
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When Will Services Be Back Up?
{{/usCountry}}CBS affiliate 4WWL reported that New Orleans' 911 Emergency Management said that, as of now, the 911 services have been restored in most of Louisiana and Mississippi. The outage lasted for a couple of hours, with the first report of the 911 outage coming at 1 p,m., and services being restored around 4:30 p.m.
New Orleans Parish Communications Director Karl Fasold also confirmed that there was no malicious intent in the fiber cut that caused the outage. 4WWL reported that while Verizon, AT&T FirstNet faced trouble reaching the 911 line, T-Mobile and AT&T Mobility users able to connect.