Crews respond to outages as Cristobal moves inland

Mississippi Power crews responded to widespread outages in the Coastal Division Sunday afternoon and into the night as Tropical Storm Cristobal brought heavy rain, flooding and gusty wind to South Mississippi.

Although the storm made landfall along the Louisiana coast, bands of severe weather steadily streamed into Mississippi’s coastal counties throughout Sunday, with more expected into Monday morning.

At 6 p.m. on Sunday, the company was reporting about 2,100 customers without service. Crews were restoring power throughout the day as issues developed.

From 7 a.m. Sunday to 7 a.m. Monday, crews restored service to more than 11,000 customers affected by the storm.

“This is another example of how damage from these storms can occur many miles from the center of circulation or where landfall occurs,” said Shared Services Manager Scott Cashwell. “Our team is doing a great job of responding to jobs as they arise and safely restoring power as quickly as possible.”

The Mississippi Department of Transportation closed U.S. 90 from the Biloxi Bay Bridge to the Bay St. Louis Bridge. Many other roads were cut off due to coastal flooding and torrential showers. Parts of the beach highway were re-opened Monday morning.

“We’ve had difficulty getting to some jobs but at this point, there haven’t been any that we couldn’t get to due to the flooding,” said Distribution Manager Stephen Schruff. “We’re seeing a lot of limbs down.”

Cashwell indicated the crews from the Northern Division as well as other resources from Georgia Power and Alabama Power are standing by to help with the restoration effort on Monday morning, if needed.

Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), produces safe, reliable and environmentally responsible energy for more than 188,000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties. With nearly 160 megawatts of approved solar energy capacity, Mississippi Power is the largest partner in providing renewable energy in the state of Mississippi. Visit our website at mississippipower.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

###