As many as 30 trailers loaded with food and supplies are expected to roll to and through Vicksburg Friday, courtesy of Tennessee Titan quarterback Steve McNair, his wife, Mechelle, and donors who’ve filled the 18-wheelers in a Nashville stadium parking lot.

McNair is from Mount Olive, nearer the Mississippi coast, and played college football at Alcorn. His wife, the former Mechelle Cartwright, grew up in Vicksburg.

Her aunt, Flora Crawford, said a stop for the convoy is planned at Travelers Rest Baptist Church, the Bowmar Avenue sanctuary where the couple wed.

After being collected in the Tennessee Titans’ stadium for the Steve “Air” McNair Foundation, the supplies will be delivered to Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi towns, including Mount Olive.

“They will stop at Travelers Rest and unload three trucks there,” Crawford said. “If needed at the Vicksburg Convention Center, they will also go there.”

Members of Travelers Rest will help distribute the supplies where they need to go. Mechelle McNair and the McNair children will be with the convoy.

What is not needed in Vicksburg will go back on the road, said Mike Doyle, youth minister at First Presbyterian who is helping with the effort.

Elsewhere in the area, power restoration efforts continue. Entergy reported 1,100 customers remained without service this morning and the goal of restoring all service by Friday still in place. That means another 1,900 were connected since Wednesday, down from the peak of 22,000 on Aug. 30, the day after Hurricane Katrina hit coastal areas and swept up the middle of Mississippi.

“Were knocking them out pretty quickly now,” said Don Arnold, local customer service manager. “Hopefully we’re going to make that deadline tomorrow.”

News that additional benefits will be available to existing food stamp recipients was welcome as was the national announcement that $2,000 would be available to all Katrina evacuees who need it.

Distribution of the new benefits is by electronic debit cards, but has not begun here.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was expected to open an office here to take application for short- and long-term relief, but has not done so.

Schools were operating normally, but with 220 more students from disaster areas in the public system and dozens of others in private schools.

Also, a second military unit from Indiana has settled in Warren County in response to the state of emergency called by local and state authorities this week.

A medical unit, Company A 205th Area Support Medical Battalion of the 219th Area Support Group from Camp Atterbury, Ind., was sent by Gov. Haley Barbour earlier in the week to provide medical care to shelter residents.

The newly arrived company, which is a self-sufficient unit of 125 people, will provide security for area shelters and relieve local law enforcement, said Warren County Emergency Management director L.W. “Bump” Callaway.

“They are not policemen, just security support,” Callaway said. “They are here to help and to help the people in the shelters so they feel safer.” Members of the unit will also work in Claiborne and Jefferson counties.

Local law enforcement will resume normal duties to the citizens of Vicksburg and Warren County, Callaway said.