NATCHEZ — While there’s no question that Gustav brought torrential rains and high winds to the Natchez area, there is some question as to just how much wind and rain there actually was.

The Automated Weather Observing System, located at the Natchez-Adams airport, provides statistics to the National Weather Service in Jackson — and it lost power.

And when the AWOS lost power on Monday the Weather Service lost its ability to collect data from Natchez.

It was originally believed that the system was damaged during Gustav.

But airport manager Clint Pomeroy said when the airport lost electricity at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, the AWOS went down.

“There’s no damage at all to it,” he said of the machine. “We’re just waiting on commercial power.”

The Weather Service’s hydrologist, Marty Pope, said the loss of the AWOS, which is maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration, makes getting specifics about the storm very difficult.

“That’s how we get our data,” he said.

Pope said the last gust recorded at the airport, before the power was lost, was 43 mph.

Pomeroy said before the power outage the airport was receiving readings of between 30 and 45 mph.

Both Pomeroy and Pope estimated peak winds during the storm to be around 65 or 70 mph.

Using river gages Pope estimated the storm generated approximately 8 inches of rain.

Pope said a Weather Service spotter reported 5.25 inches of rain in Vidalia on the day Gustav arrived.

But Natchez resident Gary McCullars, who regularly records rainfall, said he has recorded approximately 13.75 inches of rain between Monday and Wednesday.

Approxmiatley six of those inches fell on Monday McCullars said.

McCullars lives near Parkway Baptist Church and said he and two neighbors record the rain and compare notes.

McCullars said so far he and his neighbors have had very similar results with their rain gages.

And while McCullars said the gage he uses is a simple store-bought model he has confidence in its accuracy.

“You don’t have to have electricity to catch water when it rains,” he said.