Thursday morning: Mississippi Power continues restoring power after Zeta

Mississippi Power crews worked overnight to begin assessing damage and restoring power after Zeta passed through the company’s service territory causing widespread outages.

Zeta made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane and brought winds of more than 100 mph and storm surge across Coastal Mississippi and tropical storm force winds across many inland counties.

The peak outage is still being determined, but approximately 91,000 customers were without service when restoration began Wednesday night. At 5 a.m., about 84,000 customers were without service.

More than 400 outside resources began arriving this morning to staging sites at the Gulf Islands Water Park in Gulfport and the Petal Fairgrounds to assist with the restoration effort.

“Based on initial assessments from the field, the company’s transmission and distribution system sustained significant damage in the storm. The worst impacted area in the service territory is from Biloxi to Hancock County,” spokesman Jeff Shepard said. “Customers should be prepared for a multi-day restoration event. Due to the extensive impact across the service territory, damage assessments will continue through Thursday while restoring power.”

The company’s best estimated restoration time is expected to be given on Friday.

Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), produces safe, reliable and environmentally responsible energy for nearly 190,000 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.

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