County, city and power company crews continued to clear off and clean up debris across the area Friday morning, but some residents could remain without powers for days.

Progress has been made, but the magnitude of outages means slow going for power companies.

Entergy restored power to half its customers with outages in the Brookhaven area Thursday, but about 6,000 customers remained in the dark Friday morning, said Entergy spokesman Kenny Goza. He repeated warnings that some customers, especially in rural areas, may be several days off from seeing the lights back on.

“I still think we’re early next week: Monday, Tuesday,” Goza said.

Entergy crews will work Friday to clear lines and poles from roads that remain blocked, said Goza. He hopes that work will be finished by mid-afternoon Friday.

Magnolia Electric Power Association reported 2,038 Lincoln County meters with no power as of early Friday, about one third of total meters served in the county. Total outages across the Magnolia system are down from a peak of 25,000 to about 12,000 as of Friday morning, according to a press release.

Southwest Electric Power Association still had 130 meters with no power early Friday morning, said Southwest spokesperson Azalea Knight. System-wide, she said 8,700 customers remain out.

Knight said she couldn’t offer a timeframe on repairs.

“It’s according to what the damage is,” Knight said. “If you can pull a line up it doesn’t take long. If you have to put a new pole up it takes longer.”

City and county officials have been working since Thursday to clear debris. In the city, residential curbside pickup of limbs and branches has continued unabated.

Solid Waste Director Willie Smith warned residents they need to carefully separate vegetative debris from garbage.

“If it’s mixed, it’s going to stay there,” Smith said.

County authorities say they cannot officially pick up residential debris.

Local officials have also been working to open blocked roads, but progress has been in fits and starts.

A city Street Department truck pulled up to Main Street Thursday morning and saw the top half of a power pole balanced upside down on the asphalt, electric wires trailing behind it.

“Nothing we can do here,” said the truck’s driver.

It was a refrain heard across the area Thursday as city and county cleanup crews reached the limit of the damage they can clear until energy companies remove downed and loose power lines.

“We’ve still got some big (roads) out, but there’s power lines on them,” District Two Supervisor Jimmy Diamond said Thursday afternoon.

Friday morning, Lincoln County Sheriff Steve Rushing said several county roads may have remained closed, but should be dealt with soon.

“I know we had one or two still with power lines, but I don’t know which ones the power companies have cleared,” Rushing said. “They’ve been going since 6 this morning.”

In the city, about six or seven roads had trees and debris on them Friday morning, said Police Chief Pap Henderson.

Thursday, county supervisors made opening roads a major priority.

“We’re trying to have every road passable today,” said District Four Supervisor Eddie Brown. “That way we’ll be in good shape for the weekend. People can get up to normal travel.”

FEMA has declared 34 Mississippi counties federal disaster areas, including Lincoln County. That means FEMA will supply emergency supplies and reimburse 75 percent of the costs of some cleanup.

County Administrator David Fields said federal dollars won’t come without red tape.

“There’s a mountain of paperwork that has to be sent in,” Fields said. “Someone for FEMA will have to come down and do an assessment.”

The timeframe isn’t predictable, but at least one thing can be counted on, Fields said. Relief money probably won’t come soon,

“It’s not going to be next week,” Fields said.