NATCHEZ &045; While Hurricane Katrina’s exact path is unknown, one thing that is certain is that she won’t catch Natchez and Adams County unprepared.

&uot;We’re ready for it,&uot; Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins said. &uot;This is a routine for us whenever we have a storm.&uot;

Mullins’ preparations included staffing extra dispatchers, fueling up the generators and checking with the shelters every 30 minutes. And he’s not the only one enacting an emergency plan.

Adams County Sheriff Ronny Brown has two trucks with power saws to clear felled trees and plans to have extra officers on patrol in the midnight hours.

&uot;We’re going to be out all night making sure nobody’s stealing and protecting people in case something does happen,&uot; Brown said.

Both Natchez Regional Hospital and Natchez Community Hospital have executed their emergency plans as well.

They have both ordered and received extra supplies and made sure emergency equipment is ready.

Both have powerful generators that can power the hospitals for days in case of an extended outage.

Community even has a second generator coming up from Pensacola that could power the hospital for a week, while Regional has an arrangement to truck in potable water should the local system be tainted.

With extra staff on duty and more on call, neither expects to have any essential services &045; including emergency medical care for anyone who needs it &045; compromised by the storm.

&uot;The things we drill periodically throughout the year we’ve enacted and hopefully will go off without a hitch,&uot; Community administrator Allan Tyra said.

The hospitals may need them, because the power companies, though no less prepared, can only wait and see how much work they’ll have to get everything running again.

Entergy, which provides power to Natchez, said in a statement it expects &uot;a significant portion of the Entergy service territory could experience extended power outages.&uot;

&uot;Entergy Mississippi has more than 1,200 linemen, vegetation workers and support personnel ready to respond to Hurricane Katrina,&uot; said Carolyn Shanks, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi. &uot;We will also be working with state and local officials to keep them up-to-date on the situation.&uot;

Power restoration may be hampered by flooding, blocked access or other obstacles. Crews are prepared to work long hours to restore service.

But utilities in Florida that have already been hit by Hurricane Katrina have pulled together a large work force that Entergy normally would draw from, according to Entergy’s statement.

Southwest Mississippi Electric Power Association has crews on standby, both in and out of state.

SMEPA General Manager Percy McCaa said that Katrina looks like it could disrupt service for at least a couple of days.

&uot;Our worst case scenario is a hurricane hitting New Orleans and coming up the river and hitting southwest Mississippi,&uot; he said.

&uot;For southwest Mississippi, this is it.&uot;

The city’s public works crews are on standby to remove debris that threatens lives or blocks roadways, with Natchez Waterworks putting three of its crews at the Public Works Division’s disposal for storm cleanup.

Adams County road crews are also on standby to help with cleanup outside the city limits.