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NATCHEZ —Francine weakened Thursday after it slammed the Louisiana coast as a Category 2 hurricane Wednesday evening with reported wind speeds around 100 miles per hour. The storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in its path as heavy rain drenched parts of Mississippi and Louisiana.

However, as the storm made an easterly shift it seems the Adams County and Concordia Parish communities of the Miss Lou missed the worst.

Power loss

As of this morning, Southwest Electric had 756 meters out across the service area with 233 out in Adams County alone. At the peak, Southwest spokesperson Deb McGee said Adams County had approximately 500 meters out. There were 2,328 meters out of the 25,370 total customers in Copiah, Hinds, Jefferson, Wilkinson, Adams, Amite, Claiborne, Lincoln and Franklin Counties.

“We’ve got lines down around the airport and some scattered outages,” McGee said.

With two crews, one from Southwest and another on contract, and two servicemen making their way around Adams County, McGee said the estimated restoration time for all of the outages is by the end of the day with some sooner. The only broken pole reported for Southwest in Adams County was a broken cross arm on Foster Mound Road that had been repaired this morning.

Southwest Electric customers who want a more detailed look at their area outages and estimated restoration times can now find them at the website southwestelectric.coop by clicking on the outage map.

“Stay away from down power lines,” McGee warned. “Always assume they are energized and report it immediately.”

For Entergy customers, spokesperson Tim Runnels said trees had fallen over power lines and there were several poles broken. There are 125 people out working including in Adams County to restore remaining outages with 64 still out as of 11 a.m. Thursday.

“By the storm moving to the east, that helped us out a lot. Lagrange is our biggest case today,” Runnels said. “We have three out now around Itasca Drive, Somerset Boulevard and Camp Street.”

The estimated time for all lights to be back on is 10 p.m. tonight, he said.

Entergy had over 850 reported outages in Adams County throughout the storm with around 400 being the most out at one time.

“We brought in additional resources to help during the storm,” Runnels said. “We want to remind all of our customers that if they see wire and limbs down, be careful and report them to Entergy. Don’t go near them if you come across one because they could be hot.”

Call 1800 ENTERGY to report any outages, he said.

For detailed outages and restoration times, visit entergy.com and click on the “outages” button.

Damages

Robert Bradford, Adams County Emergency Management Director, said as of Thursday morning reported damages included a tree on a West Stiers Lane residence and another on a commercial business property.

“We’re out doing damage reports right now,” Bradford said.

Angela Bouldin on Sunset Boulevard shared images Thursday morning of trees and power lines down all around her property.

“We are truly blessed by God’s grace,” she said. “Our home sustained no damage despite downed power lines in the area. My husband, son and son-in-law usually leave home around the time the tree fell, but God keeps his hands on us! Although we are currently blocked in and unable to get out, we are grateful for God keeping us safe.”

The Town of Vidalia, which closed business offices Wednesday at noon and declared a local State of Emergency ahead of Hurricane Francine’s arrival, resumed normal operations today including garbage pickup.

“Everything went fine and we’re in good shape,” Mayor Buz Craft said Thursday morning. I don’t have any reported outages and no debris. I drove all the streets early this morning. There wasn’t much wind. We did have 4 to 5 inches of rain. But we had a dry spell so everything is draining great. I’m pleased with all of that.”

Craft added, “I want to thank all of my workers. I let them go home early yesterday in case we did have any issues. Thank the Lord, we didn’t have anything happen but they were all good about coming out if needed. As I always say, we always prepare for the worst and pray for the best. It looks like we got the best this time.”