Thousands of Mississippians are still without power as tropical weather moves northward through the state. Tropical Storm Gordon never became a hurricane, but, as MPB's Evelina Burnett reports, it did bring heavy winds and rain to parts of the Gulf Coast.
Gordon shifted further to the east than initially expected, making landfall near the Mississippi/Alabama line about 10-o'-clock last. Terry Jackson is emergency management operations coordinator for Jackson County.
“Starting somewhere about 10 or 11 o’clock last night, we started getting fairly heavy winds throughout the east side of Jackson County, the central part of Jackson County.”
He says an estimated 5,000 people lost power in the county. Mississippi Emergency Management Agency executive director Greg Michel says as of this morning at about 5 o'clock, there were about 15,000 people without power statewide.
“Fortunately we had some power crews staged in Hattiesburg, Ms, early afternoon yesterday, so the utility companies will be working together to getting peoples power restored back as quickly as possible.
Michel says the main focus today will be getting power restored and watching Gordon as it moves north, where it could bring rough weather to the rest of the state.
