Officials say 911 emergency lines are back up in Mississippi and Louisiana

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.”