NEW ORLEANS - Progress is being made to restore electricity across parts of Louisiana and Mississippi that have experienced outages this week as a result of freezing cold temperatures, but challenges remain in getting water services restored.
According to PowerOutage.us, 29,402 customers were without power in Mississippi as of Sunday afternoon. That was an improvement from the 38,370 customers without power at the start of the day. By afternoon Sunday 10,804 customers were without power - down from 14,840 earlier in the day. Crews have been out in force in recent days to restore power after temperatures plummeted earlier in the week. Rising temperatures across the region are also helping.
Entergy, which provides service to customers in roughly half of Mississippi's counties, said Friday that it expected most of its customers to regain service by the beginning of next week, the Clarion-Ledger reported Sunday. In a news conference Friday, President and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, Haley Fisackerly, also warned customers to slowly ramp up their usage once their electricity comes back so they don't overload their systems, the newspaper said.
The state's Department of Health canceled drive-thru coronavirus vaccinations in three counties Sunday - Adams, Lee and Washington - as a result of weather, the department reported on its Twitter feed. They said those appointments are being rescheduled.
Communities in both states are still working to restore water services after the freezing temperatures iced equipment and caused water lines to burst. In a sign of how far-reaching the problems were, dozens of towns and water associations had reported to the state that they had customers under boil water advisories that started when the harsh weather kicked in.
In Jackson, the entire city of about 161,000 residents is still being advised to boil water before drinking it as officials work to restore water to city residents. City officials Saturday delivered water to elderly and homebound residents.
The city's public works director, Charles Williams, said Sunday that there was still no definitive timeline for when water service would be fully restored.
"We are working as hard as we can to get this resolved. We know the patience is thin," he said in a telephone interview. He said the weather was so cold that it froze equipment at the city's two water treatment facilities.
As temperatures started to rise and the equipment thawed, they're now encountering problems with sensors and other types of equipment damaged by the freeze and are currently troubleshooting those problems, he said. There's also concern that as they start pushing more water out from the treatment plants through the water lines they will encounter more breaks due to the weather.
He said residents who live furthest from the treatment plants have had the biggest problems with many of those people having no water at all while others who live closer have seen low water pressure.
According to PowerOutage.us, 29,402 customers were without power in Mississippi as of Sunday afternoon. That was an improvement from the 38,370 customers without power at the start of the day. By afternoon Sunday 10,804 customers were without power - down from 14,840 earlier in the day. Crews have been out in force in recent days to restore power after temperatures plummeted earlier in the week. Rising temperatures across the region are also helping.
Entergy, which provides service to customers in roughly half of Mississippi's counties, said Friday that it expected most of its customers to regain service by the beginning of next week, the Clarion-Ledger reported Sunday. In a news conference Friday, President and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, Haley Fisackerly, also warned customers to slowly ramp up their usage once their electricity comes back so they don't overload their systems, the newspaper said.
The state's Department of Health canceled drive-thru coronavirus vaccinations in three counties Sunday - Adams, Lee and Washington - as a result of weather, the department reported on its Twitter feed. They said those appointments are being rescheduled.
Communities in both states are still working to restore water services after the freezing temperatures iced equipment and caused water lines to burst. In a sign of how far-reaching the problems were, dozens of towns and water associations had reported to the state that they had customers under boil water advisories that started when the harsh weather kicked in.
In Jackson, the entire city of about 161,000 residents is still being advised to boil water before drinking it as officials work to restore water to city residents. City officials Saturday delivered water to elderly and homebound residents.
The city's public works director, Charles Williams, said Sunday that there was still no definitive timeline for when water service would be fully restored.
"We are working as hard as we can to get this resolved. We know the patience is thin," he said in a telephone interview. He said the weather was so cold that it froze equipment at the city's two water treatment facilities.
As temperatures started to rise and the equipment thawed, they're now encountering problems with sensors and other types of equipment damaged by the freeze and are currently troubleshooting those problems, he said. There's also concern that as they start pushing more water out from the treatment plants through the water lines they will encounter more breaks due to the weather.
He said residents who live furthest from the treatment plants have had the biggest problems with many of those people having no water at all while others who live closer have seen low water pressure.