This is sure bringing panic.

Mississippi and Louisiana experienced widespread 911 emergency calling system outages on Thursday.

The outages have impacted major cities such as New Orleans and Jackson.

An initial investigation by New Orleans authorities revealed that the outages stemmed from severed fiber optic cables.

CNN reported more on the outages:

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Louisiana and Mississippi are experiencing widespread outages of 911 emergency calling systems, according to officials.

The outages are impacting multiple parishes in Louisiana and include New Orleans, as well as several Mississippi counties and include the capital city of Jackson, according to officials.

A severed 911 fiber cable was cited by New Orleans emergency communications officials as the reason the outages are having a “regional impact.”

Outages were also reported in Fulton County, Illinois, where officials are advising residents to call a non-emergency number, the Canton Police Department said.

KTEN reported on Mississippi’s Gov. Tate Reeves’ response to the incident:

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the state was working closely with AT&T after the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency received reports from the company saying they were responding to a “series of fiber cuts” impacting their network.

Local officials had been advising residents to call alternate numbers while they worked to restore 911 service.

Outages were also reported in Fulton County, Illinois, where officials advised residents to call a non-emergency number, the Canton Police Department said.

Forrest and Kemper were among the counties affected in Mississippi, while in Louisiana, Jefferson and Tangipahoa parishes as well as the cities of Baton Rouge and Shreveport were among those experiencing outages.

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Residents calling 911 in Forrest County had to wait on the line until being transferred to the National 911 Call Center, which then had to transfer the call to a non-emergency line in the county — some of which had crashed, Gerry Burns, the Deputy 911 Coordinator of the county, told CNN.

No foul play is epcted to be behind the outages:

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

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