Strong winds and dozens of downed tress can quickly turn the town where the south still lives into the Wild, Wild West.

On Tuesday night when the lights went out for large portions of the City of Natchez, our normally well-oiled system of traffic laws screeched to a halt.

For hours after the storms passed last night and even Wednesday morning, major intersections were left with no electronic traffic control lights — a few were victims to the wind damage, most were just without electrical power.

Yet with only a few exceptions, intersections were left unmanned and motorists were under great peril hoping that all other motorists knew where intersections were — difficult in the dark if you’re unfamiliar with the area — and knew to treat them all like four-way stop signs.

Intersections at Canal Street at John R. Junkin Drive and Seargent S. Prentiss Drive and Melrose-Montebello Parkway were among the most dangerous unmanned locations on Tuesday night.

If we don’t have an emergency traffic plan, we need one — quickly.

The same thing occurred only a few months ago when Hurricane Gustav blew through.

While we appreciate that the Natchez Police are often undermanned, we should be calling in help from other agencies as required. Natchez is in Adams County and thus sheriff’s deputies could be pressed into service, as could the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

We need a plan for the next storm before a bad weather night turns into a horrible fatal accident.