It’s unclear when water pressure will be restored in Jackson, or across the state. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba didn’t mince words when talking about the challenges the capital city’s infrastructure is facing.
“It’s been very, very trying. Our infrastructure was not built to withstand, you know, the temperatures that we’ve experienced over the last few days,” he said. “And, you know, we’ve seen failures across the city”
Lumumba said over the weekend as many as 19,000 residents have been without power intermittently. He says Jackson is also struggling to find and distribute water because the delivery trucks couldn’t manage the iced-over highways.
Maya Miller works at Urban Foxes, a coffee shop in Jackson that was closed most of the week. Earlier this year she moved into her grandmother’s old house in Florence, where it was a challenge to safely keep the heat on.
“The hardest part was staying warm because again, like, I don’t know how to make a fire. And I didn’t want to like, give myself carbon monoxide poisoning with the gas heater.”
Miller said despite only being able to offer drip coffee and pie, work has been busier than she expected.
There have been at least 20 water main breaks in Jackson as a result of the storm. Across the state, there are nearly 80 boil water advisories in effect including in the towns of Natchez and McComb.
