SHERMAN, Texas (KTEN) — Callers in some Grayson County communities have been having problems reaching emergency operators.

On Thursday morning, 911 calls from Whitesboro and Sherman were not going through for about 30  minutes.

Sherman police said a fiber optic data line outside Grayson County had been severed by a construction crew, resulting in the outage. 

"There has been a significant increase in fiber cuts over the last several months, again caused by construction," said Sherman police spokesperson Tracy Knight. "It's all been delivery system affected by fiber cuts in other areas of the state, the most recent ones in East Texas."

Normally, 911 callers will get a busy signal on the call, but Thursday's incident was a bit different.

"We've not had this happen before; they were being answered by a 911 call service. So the calls were being answered today, just not from the city of Sherman," Knight said.

If the lines do go out again, police advise that you call your community's non-emergency phone number: