More than 138,000 Mississippi residents lost power amid temperatures as high as the 90s since the arrival of severe thunderstorms last Friday, and thousands remained without power as storms continued to pummel the state this morning. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said in a statement this morning that 49,000 people across the state are currently without power.
Entergy Mississippi, which serves 461,000 customers in 45 counties, said the company has been working throughout the weekend to restore service even as deadly storms continue to roll through the state. Its customers make up the majority of outages statewide.
“These thunderstorms are relentless; however, our storm teams and those here to assist with our restoration are also relentless,” Entergy Mississippi CEO Haley Fisackerly said in a statement Sunday. “We are now systematically and safely stepping through our switching, vegetation clearing and construction efforts to restore power to all our customers.”
A map on Entergy’s website shows that power outages for its customers continue to affect 29,236 people in dozens of counties, including 16,868 residents in Hinds County; 4,350 in Warren County; 1,735 in Rankin County; 1,401 in Attala County; 1,024 in Madison County; 849 in Simpson County; 759 in DeSoto County; 648 in Leake County; 511 in Holmes County; 138 in Claiborne County; 128 in Grenada County; 128 in Lincoln County; and 123 in Scott County. Dozens of other counties report less than 100 without power.
Entergy Mississippi estimated yesterday that they would address large-scale power outages in South Jackson and have power “restored on Tuesday going into Wednesday,” WJTV reported.
“Our employees are actually in day eight of this,” WJTV reported Fisackerly saying on Sunday. “We know the recent events on Friday have gotten people’s attention, but I would remind everybody that we have been in this mode for quite some time, and we are seeing outages that we have not seen since Hurricane Katrina. The impact of this, this has been like a constant barrage of storms … hitting many different communities throughout our area, throughout the state.”
More deadly storms struck the state last night, with at least one person killed and 20 injured in Louin, Miss., a small town of 273 residents in Jasper County. The National Weather Service has reported multiple tornadoes on the ground in Mississippi this morning.
The City of Jackson has opened cooling stations, ice stations and charging stations. More information is available here.
MSEMA encouraged residents to take photos of any damage; report damage via its self-report tool; and file insurance claims. More information is available at MSEMA’s website.
