Thousands of Mississippians are still without electricity as layers of ice and falling limbs have downed power lines across the state.
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More than 170,000 homes and businesses in Mississippi have gone without power this week, with the majority of outages occurring in central areas of the state. On Tuesday, some residents faced scheduled outages by energy providers to keep the power grid from failing. Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley says if residents take proactive steps to limit power consumption, it will help providers keep up with high energy demands. “Obviously stay warm, keep your heat on, but if you could adjust that thermostat down to 68 [degrees ferenheight] or a little bit below and stay warm, that’s helpful,” says Presley. “Also avoiding tasks like running your dishwasher, running your clothes dryer, those sort of things make a difference.”
Entergy Mississippi currently has around 13,000 linemen working across the state to repair downed power lines and restore electricity. Spokesperson Mara Hartmann says the linemen are working 16 hours a day in record-low temperatures and difficult terrain. She says it could take several days before power is restored to many homes. “So if you have power out where you are, or if you venture into an area where you don’t know if the power’s on or not, be exceptionally careful about not going into places where you can’t be sure if there aren’t power lines down,” says Hartmann. “You need to treat them all as if they’re live because a power line can be deadly.”
Officials are also warning residents about fraudulent calls claiming to be energy providers demanding money to restore power or to keep it on. These calls can be reported to the Public Service Commission.
