Over the last few days, snow predictions have climbed from 2 to4 inches, to 5 or 6 inches, and now weather forecasters say therecould be 8 inches of snow on the way for Brookhaven and thesurrounding area.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning forcentral and southern counties starting at 6 p.m. Thursday and goingthrough 2 p.m. Friday.

Forecasters say total snow accumulation for area south ofInterstate 20, especially along U.S. Highways 84 and 98, couldrange from 5 to 8 inches down to Interstate 10. Rain and sleet wereexpected south of I-10.

“It’ll be accumulating, I can tell you that,” said National WeatherService Meteorologist Joanne Culin Thursday. “We’re looking for thesnow to start late this afternoon… but the main part will occurovernight tonight and into tomorrow.”

And local authorities are once again chanting their mantra ofwinter storm safety.

“People need to be cautious, and be aware of what’s going on,” saidLincoln County Civil Defense Director Clifford Galey. “If we do getthat much snow and you don’t need to get out, don’t get out.”

Culin said the frozen precipitation may actually continue to fallthrough Friday afternoon. She said the fact that the snow will bewet and heavy could cause trouble for power companies.

“That is something we need to look out for,” she said. “With fromfive to eight inches possible, any time you accumulate snow in thatamount on the trees and power lines, it weakens them and we do seesome breakage.”

Galey said power companies are watching the weather for that veryreason. He said he is in contact with not only power companies, butalso school officials, and they will all keep each other abreast ofclosures, outages and other pertinent information.

“I expect from my conversations yesterday with the superintendentsthat the county schools will make the decision this evening and thecity schools will decide in the morning,” he said Thursday.

Magnolia Electric Power Company Member Services Manager Lucy Shellsaid her company has emergency operation plans ready to go and hascontractors on standby for weather that could bring extendedoutages.

“We won’t really know until it hits and we find out how much damageis done, it could be an extended outage,” she said. “We’re askingpeople to make preparations for that. And please, stay away fromany downed power lines.”

Meanwhile, area businesses are seeing another spike in business aspeople stock the cabinets against the cold weather.

“The number one item is bread,” said Piggly Wiggly co-managerViolet Kyzar. “We had a pretty good day yesterday, but it reallyhasn’t started so much today. They may wait until lunch.”

She said oftentimes there are late rushes when procrastinators comeout with the first snowflakes.

“They’ll wait, they like to get out when it’s snowing lightly,” shesaid. “They like to get out and talk about it. They’ll be in in alittle while.”

Meanwhile, if temperatures proceed as predicted, the snow couldstay on the ground throughout the weekend.

“The high on Friday will be in the 30s, so it could stay on thegrassy areas, but not so much on the roadways,” Galey said.