photo by Marcus Frazier

Seven-year-old Promise Batteaste and her sister Asia, 5, shelter themselves from the drizzle as they take a stroll on Lamar Street after the heavy rain Wednesday afternoon.

Lightning knocks out power

By Grafton Pritchartt (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Thursday, December 27, 2007

NATCHEZ — Approximately 500 Entergy customers were without power for a short time Wednesday as a result of storms moving through the area.

The outage was caused by a lightning that created a wire failure near downtown, Entergy Customer Service Manager Stephen Caruthers said.

The area experienced wind gusts up to 39 mph and three quarters of an inch of rain during late morning and early afternoon.

Parts of Concordia Parish saw straight line winds, said Morris White, director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for Concordia Parish. Stronger winds and weather were reported north of Natchez, closer to Jackson.

According to National Weather Service, at about 2 p.m. a cold front from the west pushed through the area creating a weather system.

An area of low pressure developed behind the rain, which created gusty winds that averaged 20 to 22 mph.

But despite lightning and wind, little to no damage was reported in the Miss-Lou.

“We haven’t had any big wind factor with this storm,” said George Souderes, Adams County Civil Defense and Emergency Management director.

“The wind could have moved things around if they weren’t protected, but they definitely were not sailing through the air.”

Entergy was able to restore power fairly quickly, Caruthers said.

“We were able to get the majority of our customer’s power on within 20 to 30 minutes, and we also experienced some problems outside of the county in Franklin and Wilkinson counties,” he said.

The front will bring slightly cooler temperatures to the area today, and another front is expected to move in by tonight that will bring more precipitation to the area.

La Nina air patterns are to blame for this winter’s weather.

“La Nina generally brings warmer and dryer weather where typically you get patterns where you can have an active storm track,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Brad Bryant said.