NATCHEZ —Approximately 5,300 Adams County residents are without power today, after Tropical Storm Isaac moved through Wednesday night and this morning.

Natchez Entergy Customer Service Manager Tim Runnels said approximately 2,300 Entergy customers are without power in Natchez and Adams County as of 6:30 p.m.

Runnels said crews are out working to restore power, but some areas will not be restored today. He said an update on which areas can expect to have power back today will be available in the next few hours.

The worst hit areas, Runnels said, with approximately 300-500 residences without power are Melrose, Montebello, Stiers Lane, Auburn Avenue and from South Canal Street all the way to Martin Luther King Jr. Street.

Power was restored early this afternoon to Auburn Avenue, Stiers Lane and Homochitto Street.

Crews were still working on Montebello and Melrose Avenue and Liberty and Lagrange roads, but Runnels was not sure power to those areas would be restored today.

Montebello, Runnels said, has four broken poles just on Kenwood Lane.

“Places like that will make it very difficult to get power back on (today),” he said.

Other outages are scattered throughout the city and county.

Some areas could be without power until Saturday or Sunday, Runnels said.

All of Franklin County is without power, including the county hospital, Runnels said. Runnels said the company lost the long-distance power transmission lines coming into the county.

Runnels said Entergy will more than likely be getting helicopters in the air today to assess the damage to the lines.

Runnels said an initial report had all of Wilkinson County out of power, but he said he would have to check back with his office to see if that was still the case. The Town of Woodville is also without water.

Lines to the substation for downtown Meadville, Bude and the Centreville hospital are ready to go, but the transmission lines have to be repaired before power can be restored.

Runnels did not have a full report on Jefferson County, but he said it was not hit as bad as neighboring counties.

More updates on power restoration will be available as Entergy is able to completely assess the damage, Runnels said.

Members of the Southwest Mississippi Electric Power Association can expect their electricity to be restored by the weekend.

Spokeswoman Azalea Knight said in Adams County the electric cooperative had 3,000 meters with disrupted service. System wide, Southwest has approximately 11,000 meters affected by the aftereffects of Tropical Storm Isaac.

“We are telling all of our customers and members to expect to be out for three to five days,” Knight said. “We are hoping to be up by the weekend.”

Extra crews from cooperatives in Alabama were already in the area to assist Wednesday, Knight said, and crews from Mississippi cooperatives were on their way Thursday morning.

The outages were caused largely to distribution line damage resulting from falling trees and limbs and downed power poles, Knight said.

While Southwest is experiencing some transmission trouble, Knight said she has not been notified that any of the main transmission lines have been downed.

“Right now we are just dealing with the distribution lines, and that is just dealing with trees on lines,” she said.

Adams County Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said that as of 5 a.m. deputies had called in 115 reports of limbs or trees in the roads.

Click here for more photos of storm damage around the Miss-Lou

The sheriff’s office responded to two road accidents during the storm, one on Liberty Road and one on Redd Loop Road.

The accident on Liberty Road was the result of a tree falling on a vehicle, which resulted in minor injuries, and the Redd Loop accident was a driver who crashed into a tree after leaving the road during the storm, Mayfield said.

The only accident involving a sheriff’s office vehicle was to the unit Mayfield was driving himself.

“I was on Low Water Bridge Road and had a limb come flying out of a tree and came right through my windshield,” Mayfield said.

A local auto glass business was able to replace the windshield within an hour of the accident, Mayfield said.

“When you have the community helping like that, pulling together, this is what it is all about,” he said.

The sheriff said he was proud of the deputies for working together and helping to clear the roads.

The sheriff’s office will continue patrolling the county to make sure no one is trapped in a damaged home or stranded in a car downed by the storm, he said.

Although heavy rain is still in the forecast all day today, the overnight rainfall totals from Tropical Storm Isaac are far less than anticipated.

The “official” gauge at the Natchez-Adams County Airport lost power overnight, but area weather watchers report recording between 2.5 and 3.5 inches across the area since yesterday, though local amounts may be heavier. The storm’s center was located just to the southwest of Adams County. The storm is expected to continue to weaken throughout the day, and may degrade to a tropical depression by late afternoon or early evening.

Entergy Mississippi’s automated outage reporting service indicated approximately 3,800 customers were without power early Thursday.

Despite the less-than-expected rainfall, Isaac still managed to down trees — and subsequently power lines all over the area.

The danger from the storm is not over yet and rain and wind is expected to continue for the rest of the day and it’s expected that more trees will topple after being weakened by soaked ground conditions.