Mendenhall Mayor Todd Booth reported that the city crews have successfully cleared the roadways so travel can resume throughout the city following the devastating weather that took place over the weekend. A tornado accompanied by 60 mph winds is believed to have struck the area leading to widespread infrastructure damage throughout the City of Mendenhall. Several trees fell throughout the area blocking travel within the city and on parts of Highway 49 over the weekend.
Booth said, “Finally we have the streets cleared. We were able to get things cleared by Sunday night. We had a big outpour of citizens helping the city crews, and that really touched my heart to see that. We had several churches in the area reach out to help, people on 4-wheelers, people bringing chainsaws and trailers just looking to help their neighbors. The citizens of Mendenhall have really come together.”
Booth described a situation where a man and his family helped clear large trees on Pine Lane. He explained that these people did not live in the city but heard about the situation and came to lend a hand.
The city crews are currently running two grapple trucks removing debris. Mayor Booth said it will take some time to get everything cleaned up. He praised the citizens for helping each other and asked for patience as the city is being cleaned up.
Booth described the remaining damage stating that every other street in the city had damage to a power line or a broken light pole. Booth said the biggest concern now is restoring power to the city. He confirmed that power is unavailable throughout the entire city and crews are currently working to fix the issues. The citizens of Mendenhall are on their third day of no power.
He said, “This is the biggest devastation that I have seen happen to Mendenhall. We’re crippled until we can get the power restored. I’m very disappointed in the slow response from Entergy we have the entire city without power and they didn’t get here until Sunday afternoon.”
Mayor Booth believed the response to the crisis could have been better, and it will take round the clock efforts to get power restored to the city.
Entergy shared their last update on December 29 at 6:00 p.m. saying:
Entergy Mississippi crews are making steady progress restoring power after deadly storms swept through the state Saturday night. Tornadoes, lightning and high winds caused more than 45,000 power outages in our service area.
As of 6 p.m., crews have restored power to about 60% of the outages caused by this storm, with about 17,800 customers remaining without power.
Due to the severity and widespread nature of damages, we expect the restoration effort to span multiple days. Some customers will be restored Monday evening, while others may not be restored until late Tuesday. As damage assessments continue, customers in heavily impacted areas will begin to see updates to their estimated restoration time on Entergy’s View Outage map.
As of 6 p.m., damage assessment is 53% complete and shows impact to both the transmission and distribution system. Scouts found damage to 10 transmission lines, two transmission towers, and seven insulator assemblies. On the distribution system, reports show 101 poles, 29 transformers and approximately 29 miles of wire damaged or destroyed.
More crews have joined Entergy Mississippi internal teams to restore power as quickly and safely as possible, bringing the total workforce to more than 1,200 linemen, contractors, vegetation workers, damage assessors and support personnel.
Entergy Mississippi continues to urge everyone to be safe. Stay away from downed power lines as well as flooded areas. Do not walk in standing water and do not venture into areas of debris since you may not be able to see a power line that could still be energized and dangerous.
