Area utility officials hope to have all residents’ power restored by Sunday evening in the wake of last week’s storm.

After a storm system moved through Lincoln County Thursday night and early Friday morning, thousands of area homes and businesses were initially left without power.

Since then, emergency crews have been busy working to restore electricity to residents and businesses.

The Brookhaven-Lincoln County Civil Defense and Emergency Management Agency released a report Friday afternoon saying the storm damaged houses, electrical and gas lines and caused blocked roadways.

“We are asking folks to be patient as city, county and utility emergency crews work to clear areas and restore services,” said civil defense director Clifford Galey. “Please stay off the roads in the affected areas for your own safety and that of our workers.”

Initial reports show nine homes with major damage and eight homes and two businesses with minor damage in Lincoln County.

Lucy Shell, Magnolia Electric Power Association spokesperson, said the utility had less than 100 customers without power as of 5 p.m. Saturday. Shell said there had been more damage than originally thought with seven broken poles and numerous cases of wires down due to fallen trees.

“The going is slow, but they’re working,” she said.

Shell said the workers planned to get those last customers restored before they quit for the night Saturday.

Bill Howard, Entergy spokesperson in Brookhaven, said at 5 p.m. Saturday 974 customers remained without power.

“We anticipate everyone to be restored by 6 p.m. Sunday,” he said.

Howard said at the peak of the outage, more than 13,100 customers were without power in Copiah and Lincoln County, and by 8 a.m. Friday that number had dropped to 8,200.