South Warren has majority still in dark

Published 12:01 am Saturday, September 1, 2012

More than 3,000 people remained without power Friday night as Entergy Mississippi crews assisted by linemen from other areas continued working to repair lines.

“We’ve got 3,430 without power, most of them in the southern part of Warren County,” Entergy spokesman Don Arnold said Friday afternoon, hours after the company reported more than 4,000 without power. “That’s where all the trees are down. We’ve got trees on lines and broken poles throughout the southern end.”

He said a number of Entergy customers in the Bovina area were without power because of a downed power line from a substation in the area. He said scattered outages remained throughout Vicksburg.

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“We have crews from Georgia Power and Light and Alabama Power coming here to help us,” he said. “They’re waiting for their marching orders. We’re going to get them oriented to the area and get them familiar with our safety regulations. We’re getting plenty of help. Tomorrow, we’ll get out there and we should make a dent.”

Arnold reported on the day’s work just as another storm, this one with more lightning and thunder than had been seen in previous days, blew in and zapped power to even more customers, at least some along Indiana Avenue and North Frontage Road. Much of the electricity in that outage was back on in a couple of hours.

Power outages remained the main problem in the county as residents began recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, which hit the area Wednesday afternoon and lingered through Thursday with gusty winds and dumping more than two inches of rain.

At one point, 6,100 county residents were without power during the storm and fallen trees blocked a number of city and county roads.

An estimated 30 homes in the city and county were damaged by the storm, and 20 trees were reported entangled in power lines.

Interim Vicksburg public works director Garnet Van Norman said Friday afternoon that all city streets were clear except Drummond Street near Realty Street, which remained blocked by a fallen tree entangled with power lines.

He said city crews were waiting for Entergy crews to remove lines so the tree could be removed and expected the road to be cleared today.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said all county roads were clear, “But they’re going to be removing debris for a long time.”

He said road crews cut the trees to clear the roads and moved debris to shoulders to be removed later.

The Red Cross closed its emergency shelter at Vicksburg Church of Christ Friday, and the seven-member family who had spent Thursday night there moved to Mountain of Faith Women’s Shelter, Red Cross officials said.

County and city officials planned to review storm response in the coming weeks and take stock of lessons learned from responding to Isaac, Warren County Emergency Management Agency Director John Elfer said.

“We did well,” he said. “We can always do better.”