NATCHEZ — A strong weather system moved through Concordia Parish and Adams County between 2 and 4 a.m. Monday downing trees and tree limbs and knocking out power to thousands of customers on multiple electric services.

“We had reports of widespread wind damage throughout that part of the state,” said Latrice Maxie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson. “So far, we’ve had no confirmed tornadoes, just strong wind damage.”

Maxie said the system moved through the area quickly dropping a quarter inch of rain in Adams County alone.

The storm, Maxie said, was moving west to east and caused damage in Lincoln County and other parts of Mississippi as well.

“We had some reports of wind damage around Catahoula Parish and Lincoln County,” Maxie said, “power lines down and it damaged a shed in Lincoln County and then even further north.”

In Natchez, tree limbs were visible downed along Madison Street where power was out from approximately 3 a.m. until 9 a.m. Monday.

Some 2,000 Entergy customers were reportedly out of service at approximately 8 a.m., and Tim Runnels, customer service representative for Entergy Mississippi said that as of 4:30 p.m. some 1,060 Entergy customers in Natchez were still without power.

Approximately 2,125 customers in the five counties served by Entergy Mississippi were still without power at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Runnels said.

“We hope to have everybody back on by 10 p.m. Tuesday night or sooner,” Runnels said. “We have lots of wire down, high voltage wires down, due to trees falling and tree limbs.”

Runnels said Entergy is bringing in outside crews Tuesday to help restore power.

Kendra Sylvester of Homewood Drive in Natchez said she was sleeping in her mobile home Monday when she was awakened.

“About 3 this morning, I heard a boom,” Sylvester said. “The whole trailer shook. I tried to get out but couldn’t get out. I finally got out of a side door.”

Once outside of the house, Sylvester said she saw that an old pecan tree had been uprooted and landed on the mobile home.

Guy Murray Concordia Parish Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said his crews had been working most of Monday to remove downed trees and tree limbs that had been blocking roadways but he had not had any reports of serious damages.

Murray said power was out briefly to most of the Vidalia Electric customers in the town of Vidalia Monday morning but that those customers’ power was restored by early Monday afternoon.

All of Concordia Electric Co-Op’s customers were without power from approximately 2:30 a.m. until Monday afternoon when some customers’ power was returned.

“Our whole coverage area was out,” said Brandie Nelson, a Concordia Parish representative Monday afternoon. “Concordia Parish — Clayton and Vidalia, we’ve got around 3,000 or 4,000 customers without power.”
Nelson said the outage was scattered throughout rural parts of Concordia Parish and that crews had been working since 2 a.m. to restore power.

“We’ve gotten a lot of them on, and they have been working since 2 a.m.,” Nelson said. “We will keep going until everyone is back on.”

Lee Sabatini, Entergy Louisiana spokesperson said approximately 1,100 Concorida Parish Entergy customers were out of electricity throughout Monday.

“We are predicting that it will be sometime Wednesday before power is restored,” Sabatini said. “It all depends on the damage to the equipment.”