Tylertown residents recovering after county-wide power outage

TYLERTOWN, Miss. (WLBT) - After a county-wide power outage struck Walthall County Thursday night, residents of Tylertown are still on edge from having no electricity that left thousands of residents in the dark.

“We’re not used to that down here. At all… so this is kind of crazy,” said Kimberly Rester, a mail carrier in Tylertown.

The power loss occurred during the extremely high winds and cold forecasted for this weekend across the state.

“It’s pretty scary because you know,” Chad Matthews said. “[It was] pretty much the coldest night we have had so far this year and it’s just kind of frustrating to wake up when you got children and there is no lights, no power, and you trying to cook breakfast and stuff like that. So it’s just frustrating to wake up to those elements during the coldest time of the year.”

Magnolia Electric Power posted on its Facebook page Friday that Entergy’s Substation in Tylertown went out, knocking out power in the entire area.

The outage also affected the Walthall County Sheriff’s Department, which was without power and unable to use its backup generator. All 9-1-1 calls had to be transferred to a different line to handle any emergencies.

Meanwhile, crews worked around the clock to restore power to the town as fast as they could.

“Thank God I had gas heat instead of electric…If you don’t have a backup, you’re in trouble,” a resident said.

At this time, service is restored back to all residents in that area.

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