Louisiana and Mississippi are experiencing widespread outages of 911 emergency calling systems after reporting fiber cable damage, according to officials.
The outages are impacting multiple parishes in Louisiana and include the state’s three largest cities, as well as several Mississippi counties and the capital city of Jackson, according to officials.
A severed 911 fiber cable caused outages to have a “regional impact,” according to New Orleans emergency communications officials. Mississippi officials are working with AT&T to determine the scope of the outages after fiber optic lines were damaged, said Scott Simmons, director of external affairs at the state’s department of emergency management.
Local officials have been advising residents to call alternate numbers while they work to restore 911 service.
Outages were also reported in Fulton County, Illinois, where officials are advising residents to call a non-emergency number, the Canton Police Department said. City officials in Canton said the outage has lasted at least an hour, as they caution residents “there may be some waiting” as it’s still unclear when the service will be back up, a spokesperson said.
Forrest and Kemper are among the counties affected in Mississippi, while in Louisiana, Jefferson and Tangipahoa parishes as well as the cities of Baton Rouge and Shreveport are among those experiencing outages.
Tangipahoa authorities told residents who need to call 911 that if they receive a busy signal their call will still be logged and they will get a return call “within seconds” from a regular number.
CNN has reached out to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and smaller providers such as Consumer Cellular and Google Fi for comment on the incidents.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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