911 lines are back up after temporarily going offline across Mississippi for several hours on Thursday afternoon, limiting access to emergency services and prompting public officials to share alternative means of reporting emergencies. Services also went down in Louisiana and parts of Alabama.
Scott Simmons, director of external affairs for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, told the Mississippi Free Press in an interview that, by 3:30 p.m., emergency services were already beginning to come back online.
“Services are being restored now—I’ve already gotten calls from Warren County, and their lines are back up,” he said.
By 4:45 p.m., service was backup statewide in Mississippi and Louisiana.
On Sept. 26, after this story was published, Madelynn Niece, communication and PR manager with AT&T sent the Mississippi Free Press the following statement, asserting that some parts of Mississippi maintained service during the outage.
“9-1-1 service continues to operate normally across previously affected areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama,” Niece wrote. “The issues were caused by fiber cuts made by third parties. At no time did Alabama, Louisiana or Mississippi experience statewide 9-1-1 disruptions. We understand how important these services are and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”
The City of Brandon stated in a social media posting earlier in the afternoon that “officials have informed us this outage is due to a fiber line cut, which is affecting 911 service in portions of Louisiana and Mississippi.” Simmons confirmed that “AT&T is investigating right now what appears to be fiber optic lines that were damaged and cut.”
“911 and administration lines are currently down statewide,” wrote Hinds County Sheriff Tyree Jones earlier in the day. “This has impacted calls and emergency responses. Officials are working with AT&T to identify and correct the problem. Will continue to update and provide a contingency plan.”
All in all, roughly 80 different emergency systems were brought offline in Mississippi alone. Presently, no evidence has been presented that suggests this outage was the result of intentional damage.
“ There’s no indication yet, as to the cause, of anything nefarious. They’re investigating,” Simmons said.
Below is a list of alternative emergency services numbers from around Mississippi.
Brandon Police Department: 601-825-7225
Clinton Emergency Services: 601-924-5252
Columbus Police Department: 662-244-3500
DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office: 662-469-8599
Gautier Police Department: 228-497-2486
Greenville Police Department: 662-378-1515
Gulfport Police Department: 228-328-8015
Hattiesburg Police Department: 601-475-1306
Hinds County Sheriff’s Office: 601-352-1521
Horn Lake Police Department: 662-393-6174 Ext 1
Jackson Fire Department: 601-960-2014
Jackson Police Department: 601-960-0742
Jones County Emergency Response: 601-425-0223
Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department: 662-234-8789
Meridian Emergency Services: 601-616-2224
Madison Police Department: 601-856-6111
Ocean Springs Police Department: 228-875-2211
Olive Branch Police Department: 662-895-4111
Pascagoula Police Department: 228-762-2211
Pearl Police Department: 601-939-7000
Ridgeland Police Department: 601-856-2121
Southaven Police Department: 662-393-0228
Tupelo Police Department: 662-841-6491
Vicksburg Emergency Response: 601-218-9911