Yazoo City residents seek shelter as power outages persist after winter storm

YAZOO CITY, Miss. (WLBT) - Nearly 24 hours after a winter storm hit central Mississippi, more than 4,000 Yazoo City residents remain without power as frozen power lines and downed trees continue to cause outages.

The L.T. Community Center on Lamar Street is serving as a warming shelter for residents displaced by the storm and power outages.

Eugene Paige arrived at the shelter Sunday night with his family after their home became too cold.

“We came here last night. I told my family let’s go because it was too cold in our house,” Paige said.

Getting to the shelter required emergency assistance for Paige’s family.

“So, the ambulance brought us out here. We came by ambulance,” Paige said. “We didn’t have no other way. Our truck doors had frozen and we could even open our truck doors, so that’s why we called the ambulance.”

Paige, an amputee with artificial limbs who relies on medication, said being outside his normal routine is difficult.

“We’re hanging in there and we are blessed. We’re just blessed to be here,” he said.

Icicles cover much of Yazoo City, but the winter conditions have caused significant infrastructure damage.

Frozen trees knocked out power to major power lines, and some residents are also without water.

Simon Smith, a child who lives in Yazoo City, described the ongoing cold conditions.

“You can still see your breath every time you exhale. It’s just cold,” Smith said.

Smith’s family has been managing by staying near their fireplace and helping relatives whose power went out.

“We’ve been going back and forth from the fireplace, we’ve been eating warm food, and we’ve been helping some of our relatives because their power went out and they were cold,” he said.

Jack Willingham, Yazoo City’s Emergency Management Director, said this winter storm response has been the most challenging he’s experienced.

“It’s different than a normal disaster. A tornado comes in; we can start cleaning up the next day and you don’t have to deal with the same issues falling over or behind you. This is one that has lasted several days. You clean a road out and the ice is still there, the trees are still falling, you’re fixing problems you have already fixed continuously. The same with utilities,” Willingham said.

Utility crews were working throughout the city Monday. Power restoration is expected to take several days.

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