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Residents of snow-covered areas mississippi On Monday, as they shivered in their increasingly cold and dark house, they began to face an ugly truth: Recovery from the state’s worst ice storm in more than 30 years could take a week or more.
While weekend winter storms affected tens of millions Americanwith the most lasting impacts concentrated in a stretch of Texas from far east to north Louisianamississippi and enter nashvilleTennessee.
In the Magnolia State, parents worried about college students at the University of Mississippi on Monday while some residents tried to free themselves from a thicket of trees blocking driveways. Officials are worried not just about restoring power and opening heating stations, but also about keeping fuel flowing to backup generators that run water pumps and supplying medical facilities, and finding ways to get dingy gas stations and grocery stores back in business.
“I mean, it looks like a war zone,” Adrian Ronca-Hohn said. He estimated the storm destroyed about 40 trees around his property in Iuka, a hilly region in the northeastern corner of the state. He and his family planned to chain saw their way out on Tuesday.
Like others, Ronka-Horn couldn’t see the damage being done when the ice began to collapse before dawn Sunday. But the 23-year-old football coach and storm chaser said he could hear it.
“There’s no way we wouldn’t hear gunshots for 10 seconds,” he said. “You’d hear a thud, a hard thud, and then you’d hear the whistle of it falling, and then it would hit the ground and explode. Every now and then, you’d hear something very close, like right outside. It was a sleepless night.”
Marshall Ramsey, a veteran editorial cartoonist who now teaches journalism at the University of Mississippi, said snapping trees, exploding transformers and thunder played out a “demonic symphony” in Oxford.
Nearly 10% of electric customers were without power Monday afternoon, the highest rate of any state in the country. At noon Monday, all 19,000 Corinthian Alcorn County Electric Power Association meters were dark. The high-voltage lines that provide power to the Tennessee Valley Authority are down, and general manager and CEO Sean McGrath said the cooperative won’t be able to fully assess its own losses until the Tennessee Valley Authority restores power to its substations.
TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the electricity provider was unable to deliver power to 12 of its 153 local utilities on Monday. Brooks said some utility companies’ substations were so damaged that they were unable to deliver electricity.
jackson Mills, 25, said he lives with his wife, son and in-laws at his grandfather’s home in Collins because his grandfather had a gas fireplace. Mills said there were no gas stations open in Collins on Sunday and he trekked to nearby Tennessee to buy natural gas for a generator that the family used to power a fan and circulate warm air.
“We were hoping this would all go away and melt away, but it was so cold it didn’t melt at all,” Mills said.
The situation was even worse in neighboring Tippah County, where not only was the power out, but most people were without running water or natural gas service.
“Today and over the next several days, we’re going to experience extremely cold temperatures and our conditions are going to be life-threatening,” said Ripley state Rep. Jody Stevenson, who communicated via text message because cell phone service was spotty.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said it is working to deliver supplies to more than 60 safe rooms in the hardest-hit areas of the state. Spokesman Scott Simmons said the agency has received 30 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and placed them in nursing homes, hospitals, rural water agencies and other safe rooms. MEMA also distributes cots, blankets, prepackaged meals and bottled water.
Back in Oxford, worried parents are trying to arrange rides for students from their off-campus apartments to a warming center in town. Ole Miss canceled classes for the remainder of the week.
Ramsey said his family has been using the generator to power a space heater, charge cell phones and power lights at his Oxford home. He said the temperature at his home Monday morning was around 50 degrees, calling it “a little chilly, but OK” with the bright sunshine helping.
“Apparently the new status symbol in this town is having electricity,” Ramsey said. “It’s a mess.”
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Amy reports from Atlanta. Associated Press reporters Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta and Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed.