WINTER KNOCKS OUT WATER SUPPLY IN MISSISSIPPI, LOUISIANA

Icy winter weather has left most of the 161,000 residents of Mississippi’s capital with little or no running water for days, and the mayor says it’s unclear when water service will be restored as freezing temperatures have knocked out power and water to parts of the Deep South, Leah Willingham and Jay Reeves reported for the Associated Press (AP).

In Mississippi’s capital of Jackson, many people had been without running water to flush toilets, take showers or cook since Monday. The city has made water available at fire stations and officials are working to set up locations for people to pick up water.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said officials didn’t know when water service would be restored.

“This is one of the unfortunate facts that I have to deliver,” he said. “But I owe you honesty and I owe you truth so we can manage how we prepare.”

Power crews worked to restore service to homes and businesses that were plunged into darkness across three states.

According to PowerOutage.us, about 221,000 customers across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were without power as of Thursday night with the vast majority of the outages in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said 1 million people in his state, which has 4.6 million residents, remained under a boil water advisory by midday Thursday, while another 245,000 people were grappling with water outages.

Hospitals in Lake Charles, Shreveport and Bossier Parish were receiving water deliveries, he said.

Edwards said Entergy told him it expects the “vast majority” of the 20,000 customers that have been without power since Monday – largely in the Baton Rouge area – should see power restored by Thursday night. But a second influx of icy weather across north Louisiana was causing new outages.

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