Storm Center > Entergy Mississippi Storm Update – 5/5/21 @ 1 p.m.

Entergy Mississippi Storm Update – 5/5/21 @ 1 p.m.

05/06/2021

Crews restoring power in Ridgeland, Mississippi.
Crews restoring power in Ridgeland, Mississippi.

Power has been restored to more than 65,000 customers since severe weather struck Entergy Mississippi’s service areas on Tuesday. Nearly 80,000 customers were affected by the wave of thunderstorms, lightning, high winds and tornadoes that caused widespread power outages.

As of 1 p.m., about 14,000 customers remain without power. Crews are restoring power as quickly and safely as possible. We expect most customers who can safely take power to be restored by 10 p.m. tonight. Outages for some customers in the hardest-hit areas may carry over to Friday evening. 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.

More than 1,300 extra workers from six states are helping our own crews, contractors and support staff with our restoration efforts. We will continue to provide detailed restoration times as damage assessment is completed.

Damage to our equipment is extensive. So far, we have found 712 spans of wire down, 228 broken poles, 54 damaged transformers and 60 broken cross arms.

  • A span of wire measures about 250-300 feet in length. The current number of spans down is equivalent to about 40 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 684 hours to replace.

We know you are concerned about getting power back. Crews are working in multiple locations. Our plan prioritizes restoring power to groups of customers, then individuals. 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. Also remember, Entergy restoration workers cannot restore power to a location with a damaged meter base, conduit or weather head (the metal pipe extending upward from the structure with electrical cables inside). They must be repaired by a qualified electrician before our workers can restore. Learn more about the electrical equipment that serves your home.


Leyla Goodsell
Manager, Entergy Mississippi Communications