In a striking turn of events, every single customer in Alcorn County, located in the northeastern part of Mississippi, found themselves without electricity as of Sunday morning, according to the local utility provider. The Alcorn County Electric Power Association announced that all 19,100 customers were affected after the Tennessee Valley Authority experienced a disruption in transmission to its substations.
This outage was reported around 7:30 a.m., coinciding with the arrival of a winter snowstorm sweeping through the Mid-South region. In a statement shared on Facebook, the utility company explained their approach to restoring power: "Once we have power restored, we will methodically begin addressing outages, starting from the substation and working our way down the circuits."
The company emphasized that this strategy is the most effective method for restoring electricity to the largest number of customers simultaneously. They assured residents that they would continue to work downstream until all meters were operational again. However, they cautioned that isolated outages—those affecting only a few customers—would take longer to fix, advising everyone to prepare for extended periods without power.
On Sunday evening, Sean McGrath from the Alcorn County Electric Power Association provided an update regarding the situation. He mentioned, "The damage is both significant and widespread," adding that the already challenging conditions were exacerbated by treacherous roadways and fallen trees, which hindered repair efforts.
In light of these difficulties, McGrath revealed that they have requested additional mutual aid crews and resources from other areas. "We're optimistic that these resources will be released from their current locations and can arrive here by Tuesday, which will greatly assist us in restoring power safely and efficiently," he stated. He also expressed empathy for the hardships faced by their members, assuring them that the utility company takes its responsibility seriously.
