River Region Medical Center security guards Eric Hall and Terry Cortesi block the elevators in the hospital following a power outage Wednesday afternoon. (Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

[8/28/03]A storm rumbling through Vicksburg and Warren County Wednesday afternoon stranded a woman in an elevator when power failed, knocked down trees and dumped hail on parts of the area.

“It was one of those typical summer storms that got a little rough on us,” said L.W. “Bump” Callaway, director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency.

The storm moved through about 10 miles per hour at about 4:30 p.m. from the southeast, Callaway said.

“Normally the storms move more quickly, about 40 to 50 miles per hour,” he said.

About nine trees were reported down in the county and the city, and street flooding was reported across the area. Hail was reported in the northeast corner of the city, near the intersection of U.S. 80 and Mississippi 27, and areas off U.S. 61 North.

Callaway estimated that highest winds were about 50 mph and that the storm lasted about 30 minutes.

Power outages were scattered throughout the city and county, said Entergy spokesman Cheryl Comans.

“About 3,200 were off at the peak of the storm due to lightning or winds,” Comans said.

With the exception of about 150 customers without power until 7:30 this morning, power was restored by midnight, Comans said.

Entergy serves about 27,000 customers in Warren and Claiborne counties, Comans said.

Allen Maxwell, director of the E-911 Dispatch Center, said no injuries were reported during the storm.

The woman trapped in the elevator was an employee at River Region Medical Center.

The elevator was not connected to the hospital’s emergency power generators.

“We found that one of the lobby elevators, which is not on emergency power, had stopped between floors with an employee on it,” the hospital’s director of engineering, Richard Parker, said in a statement. “While one of the engineers continued to check other plant equipment, others initiated our elevator evacuation response.

“Due to the danger involved with extracting an individual from an elevator that is between floors, the fire department was called for assistance,” the statement read.

Diane Gawronski, the hospital’s marketing and public relations director, said the name of the employee, who was stranded for a few minutes, would not be released.

Patient care was not interrupted, she said.