Mississippi shivers as thousands stuck without power after ice storm, bracing for deep freeze

Roughly 79,000 Mississippians were still without power as of Friday, according to PowerOutage.us. Entergy, a major electric company, said it had restored power to 75% of customers in the state affected by the storm as of Friday morning. The utility expects some homes to remain dark until Sunday evening.

Other utilities could take longer. The Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association, which serves several counties in north Mississippi, said in a Facebook post Friday that it can’t yet offer restoration times.

Mississippi officials said this was the worst winter weather since a 1994 ice storm froze the Mississippi Delta. In Oxford, Mississippi, Jerry Paten said he has been turning his gas stove on for a few minutes at a time in an attempt to keep warm.

“Just keep the faith,” said Paten, who has been without power for a week. “It’s rough.”

The storm has brought the college town to a halt, closing the University of Mississippi through Feb. 8. Ethel Scurlock, the dean of the university’s honor college, said several homes in her Oxford neighborhood have been destroyed. As trees fell, she said, it sounded like gunfire or fireworks.

“I heard somebody say something about ‘exploding trees,’” Scurlock said. “But I had no idea what that meant.”

Her family has kept her 88-year-old mother warm with a generator, but “most people in our neighborhood don’t even have that,” she said. Her husband, who has been assisting others with water leaks and limb removal, has been getting around on an off-road vehicle, because of debris blocking their driveway.

The National Guard has been deployed to both Mississippi and neighboring Tennessee. In Oxford, the Cajun Navy was among several volunteer organizations serving hot meals and delivering supplies.

Reeves said the state has begun preparing a major disaster declaration request to the White House.

About 30 minutes from Oxford in Batesville, Mayor Hal Ferrell said the city still had significant needs: Power poles are strewn across roads, and leaving home for provisions can be dangerous and exhausting. When traffic snarled earlier this week, Ferrell said he saw miles of 18-wheelers at a standstill on Interstate 55. The National Guard and volunteers helped rescue stranded drivers.

“You can’t go to your neighbor’s house and say, ‘Can I come in and warm up?’ because they don’t have it,” Ferrell said.

Jonathan Garner and his wife, Shea, have offered their roughly 5,000-square-foot warehouse as a warming shelter in Batesville for people who can’t get to hotels. The first arrivals, Garner said, came Saturday morning after they were left homeless by two trees that fell on their house. About 70 people are now staying there, Garner said, bringing the facility near capacity, and county emergency officials have announced additional shelters.

Ryan Celestine, 28, who runs an aviation school, has been staying at the Garners’ warehouse since Sunday after he lost power in his apartment in a local airfield hangar.

He’s taken on a leadership role at the facility, helping new arrivals get settled. A local church has provided hot meals. In the morning, he cranks up an additional heater and checks on his temporary roommates, many of them older adults or individuals with medical needs.

“I want them to be greeted by a warm face,” Celestine said. “Not somebody who’s cold and ready to go home.”