No local reports of injuries or heavy damage

Published 6:00 am Thursday, January 13, 2005

A powerful line of thunderstorms knocked out power, leftscattered tree damage and dumped heavy rain on areas of Mississippitoday.

There were no reports of injuries or heavy damage. LincolnCounty emergency management and utility officials reportedscattered problems in the area.

“We’ve got some trees and power lines down; that’s about it,”said Lincoln County Civil Defense Director Clifford Galey.

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Galey added that the damage was scattered across the county in12 to 15 places. County crews were working in several areas.

“Most of them are all cleaned up,” Galey said around 8 a.m.

Galey said Lincoln County avoided much of the storm’s fury.

“It looks like it broke up as it got to us,” Galey said.

Entergy Customer Accounts Manager Kenny Goza said the companyhad a maximum about 500 customers without power due to high winds.He said there was no major damage and the majority of the outageswere in the Bogue Chitto area.

Lucy Shell, spokeswoman for Magnolia Electric Power Association,said a maximum of 920 members across its service area were withoutpower at 7 a.m. About 400 were still without power at 9 a.m., shesaid.

In Lincoln County, Shell said, crews were working to cleardowned lines and trees on Evans Loop. Shell did not have a numberof Lincoln County customers impacted by the outages.

A dispatcher for Southwest Electric Power Association said ithad about 1,500 members without power across its service area. InLincoln County, about 400 lost power.

“Most of those are back on now,” the dispatcher said.

The storm pushed into southeast Mississippi during the morninghours after prompting tornado warnings and alerts along itsadvance. Officials said there was a danger of flash flooding insome of the more intense storms.

Entergy Corp. reported 10,000 customers in the state werewithout power at one point. Crews were out early in centralMississippi counties to restore electricity to homes, schools andbusinesses.

A dispatcher with Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop M reportedseveral trees down on Lincoln County roads, including highways 550,583 and Interstate 55. The Wesson Volunteer Fire Departmentresponded at 6 a.m. today to a tree down across the southbound laneof Interstate 55. On arrival fire firefighters found the tree hadbeen removed.

Downed trees, some temporarily blocking roads, were reported incentral Mississippi, including in Hinds and Rankin counties.

The rain was expected to end from the west tonight as coolertemperatures moved into the state.