What Two Weeks Without Power Really Looks Like

It’s been nearly two weeks since an ice storm knocked out the power at Barbara Bishop’s rural Mississippi home, and she still finds herself without basic amenities like light, unspoiled food. Light switches that don’t work, a refrigerator full of spoiled food, and unpleasant odors coming from it are just a few symptoms of the harsh winter storm they’re experiencing.

Barbara, 79, and her husband George, 85, live outside Oxford, where the ice storm not only knocked out the power but upended the entire community. He turned trees into weapons. Ice-covered branches disabled power lines and caused roads to be so badly damaged that you couldn’t drive on them even if you wanted to.

After the storm, the Bishops’ house became a shelter. Their son appeared. Then his grandchildren and two children. All of their electricity and water were cut off. Now seven people in one house are huddled around a single gas heater, trying to stay warm on bitterly cold days. At one point they also lost water.

“This was one of those times where you just had to grit your teeth, gnash your teeth, and bare it,” Barbara said.

That’s what about 15,000 people in north Mississippi were still doing Saturday morning; Grinding your teeth after two weeks. PowerOutage.us immediately afterwards showed that number had dropped from 180,000 customers, but “decline” doesn’t mean much when you’re one of the thousands still sitting in the dark.

Lafayette County, where Oxford is located, still has more than 3,000 customers without power.

Lafayette County had the most outages as of Saturday; approximately 3,244 customers. Tippah County had 2,879. There were over 2,000 in Panola and more than 1,700 each in Yalobusha and Tishomingo counties. These are not just numbers. These are families that heat water on gas stoves. Elderly couples in their 80s are wondering when normal will return.

The temperature reached 70 degrees in Oxford on Friday. But chunks of ice still cover the ground in shadowy spots; Which is a reminder that winter isn’t done with them yet. Fallen trees were piled in huge heaps along the roadsides; some were still smoldering from controlled burns. Power lines were hanging low over the streets in places and hanging over parking lots. Tree branches hung over their heads as if they were deciding whether to fall or not.

Meteorologist Rob Shackelford says Mother Nature is finally starting to provide some relief in terms of temperatures, and more consistently warmer weather is expected this week. Sunday’s high is in the lower 60s and rises to the upper 60s and lower 70s by Monday. The weather won’t be too dangerous, with a chance of light showers Tuesday night into Wednesday and into the weekend.

Across the street from Bishops, Russ Jones and his wife live without electricity or running water. For days, they filled 5-gallon buckets to flush toilets. It is cooked on a gas stove. We stayed warm by the fireplace. Technically it works. But it wears you out.

“This was a shock to the system,” Jones said.

He and his wife started staying with friends a few days ago; It’s the kind of decision you don’t want to make but eventually have to make.

On Friday, her yard was filled with volunteers from Eight Days of Hope, a nonprofit organization that shows up when disasters strike. They cleaned up broken branches, removed a massive tree from his backyard, and moved with the efficiency that only comes with doing it over and over again. The organization had been there for days, helping dozens of homeowners patch their roofs and clean up yards. They served over 16,000 free meals.

Jones said it was a relief to have one less thing weighing him down. He had to hold back tears when a volunteer gave him a free T-shirt and blanket for his wife.

“This is so far beyond anything I could have ever imagined,” he said.

Sometimes help doesn’t fix everything. This is what reminds you that you are not forgotten.

Portions of this report were obtained from the Associated Press.