storm center > entergy mississippi storm update – 5/5/21 @ 6 p.m.

entergy mississippi storm update – 5/5/21 @ 6 p.m.

05/05/2021

entergy mississippi has restored power to more than 53,000 customers after severe weather struck our service territory late tuesday, causing outages for nearly 80,000 customers. as of 6 p.m., about 26,000 customers remain without power. most of the remaining outages are in areas hit hardest by the storm, including copiah, hinds, madison, rankin and warren counties.

restoration work is underway, proceeding as quickly and safely as possible. the majority of customers should be restored by tomorrow night with those in the hardest hit areas carrying over to friday. in addition to our own crews, contractors and support staff, more than 1,300 extra workers from texas, indiana, oklahoma, louisiana, arkansas, and tennessee are helping with our restoration efforts. we will continue to provide detailed restoration times as damage assessment is completed. you can click on the link in the red banner at the top of our view outages page to get the latest restoration updates by community.

our workforce also continues to assess damage to our equipment. so far, we have found 304 spans of wire down, 98 broken poles, and damage to 21 transformers and 47 cross arms.

  • a span of wire measures about 250-300 feet in length. the current number of spans down is equivalent to about 17 miles of wire.
  • under ideal circumstances, a crew can replace a broken pole in about three hours. the number of broken power poles found in this storm so far could take crews 300 hours to replace.

along with standard storm preparations, entergy employees are navigating the covid-19 pandemic by taking additional steps. crews will continue to practice social distancing, and we ask that customers do the same. for our safety and yours, please stay away from work zones.

keep in mind that if you don’t see us working near you, we may be working on another part of the electrical system that you can’t see but must be repaired to get power to you.

if you lose power:

  • stay away from downed power lines. you can’t tell from looking at them whether they are energized or not, so assume they are. report them to 1-800-9outage.
  • report your power outage online or call 1-800-9outage. if you report your outage by phone, trust the automated system. it works very well. there is no need to speak with a customer service representative to report an outage.
  • if you have a portable generator, use it safely. do not run it in an enclosed space. if connecting to the whole house, do so only if the connection has been installed by a licensed electrician. more information is available on entergy stormcenter.
  • do not open your refrigerator or freezer door. food will stay cold much longer this way.
  • stay clear of linemen as they work.

to stay up to date on outages and restoration:

  • download our free app for your smartphone at entergy.com/app.
  • sign up for text alerts by texting reg to 36778 and have your account number and zip code handy. the registration pattern is as follows including spaces: reg (account number) (zip code). once registered, text out to 36778 to report an outage.
  • visit our “view outages” page at entergystormcenter.com.
  • follow us on twitter.com/entergyms and facebook.com/entergyms.
  • call us at 800-9outage (800-968-8243).
  • follow updates in your local news media, like radio, tv and newspapers.

 


leyla goodsell
manager, entergy mississippi communications