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| Mississippi: power slowly being restored |
| 2005-09-01 |
| JACKSON, Miss. - Much of Mississippi remained dark Wednesday, with more than 841,000 residents still without power. Entergy Mississippi, which serves 410,000 customers in the western part of the state, dropped its outage rate on Wednesday to 221,782 customers, from about 300,800 right after Hurricane Katrina passed through the state, said Checky Herrington, manager of communications. "The destruction has been much worse than we imagined," Herrington said. "Hundreds of poles down, literally miles of wire on the ground, and we're in the process of determining where those areas are and what's needed to get those lines back up in the way of equipment and personnel." The company's work force has expanded from 1,200 to more than 2,000 workers as more come in from other states. "We have a well rehearsed plan that we are implementing," Herrington said. "We are encouraged that while they may be small steps, we are making progress." The Electric Power Associations of Mississippi have restored power to almost 20,000 customers since Katrina ravaged the state. The Environmental Power Associations of Mississippi distribute electricity to more than 1.6 million customers across the state, and 430,000 of those remained without power Wednesday. The organization has reported 30,000 downed power lines in just one coastal system it serves and it will be as many as six weeks before all service is restored, Stewart said. Mississippi Power, which serves 195,000 people in the southeastern part of the state, restored power to about 5,000 of its customers in the Meridian area by early Wednesday. Hospitals, and a wastewater treatment facility were top priorities for the power company. Katrina knocked out power for all of the company's customers, and officials expect it could take as much as four weeks to completely restore normal power operations. "This is the worst disaster we've had in the (75-year) history of our company," said Anthony Topazi, president and CEO of Mississippi Power Co. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 A friend in Moss Point called to say their power won't be restored for maybe another 8-10 days... |
| Posted by: crazyhorse 2005-09-01 08:57 |
| #2 This is exactly the scenario I feared after having experienced Isabel: bad hurricane, no power, and scorching temperatures afterward. That's why I got a big emergency generator and a transfer switch. The looters are why I have several shotguns and several cases of 00 buck. |
| Posted by: mac 2005-09-01 05:57 |
| #1 Highs of 96 F degrees Thursday and Friday. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-09-01 03:10 |