NATCHEZ &045; Even before a two-hour, Miss-Lou-wide power outage sprung their guests into darkness &045; and increasing heat &045; the area’s hotels were quite busy.

Most area hotels were already booked solid as of Sunday morning with hurricane evacuees, most of them from New Orleans.

Those who still had rooms as of late Monday were asked to save room for crews coming to the area to help Entergy restore power.

Then, as of late Monday night and Tuesday morning, the same hotels started getting calls from locals whose homes were without power.

Although Comfort Suites in Vidalia had a few rooms available as of early Tuesday morning, other hotels reached Tuesday had none available.

&uot;They (locals) started calling last night,&uot; said Shonda King, a front desk cashier at Comfort Inn in Natchez. &uot;But we have 50 rooms, and they’re all booked up with people from New Orleans. We don’t have room for the locals.&uot;

&uot;They’ve been calling,&uot; Days Inn Manager Cherry Moon said of Natchez area residents without power. &uot;We have rooms for the Entergy crews that are coming, and that’s it.

&uot;We also have people calling who have been staying to the north and are trying to get at least a little closer to home. So many people are calling, we could fill a few thousand more rooms if we had them.&uot;