Mississippi and Louisiana faced widespread outages in their 911 emergency calling systems on Thursday, with major cities like New Orleans and Jackson affected. Initial investigations by New Orleans authorities attributed the disruptions to severed fiber optic cables, causing a “regional impact” as reported by local emergency communications officials.

The outages spanned multiple parishes in Louisiana, including Baton Rouge and Shreveport, as well as counties in Mississippi such as Forrest and Kemper. In Jackson, residents encountered delays when attempting to reach 911, with calls being transferred through the National 911 Call Center before being redirected to non-emergency lines—a process that sometimes failed.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves confirmed the state was collaborating with AT&T following reports of “series of fiber cuts” impacting the network. Officials urged residents to use alternate numbers while repairs continued. Similar issues were reported in Fulton County, Illinois, where authorities directed callers to non-emergency lines.

No evidence of malicious activity has been identified in connection with the outages.