By dawn Tuesday morning, Hurricane Gustav’s dark wrath was fully apparent.

The storm that seemed relatively mild, at least as hurricanes go, ripped up trees and power lines all across Southwest Mississippi.

For Natchez and Adams County, the storm effectively turned the lights out on all but the few people and businesses equipped with generators.

Entergy Mississippi personnel reported early Tuesday that all five of the main transmission lines feeding the county were downed in the storm.

Crews worked Tuesday to assess the damage and begin making repairs. Entergy urges residents to be patient as they assess the storm’s damage and work to safely re-energize power lines.

The storm has put things in focus. Things that seemed like big deals a couple of days ago have slipped into the backs of our minds.

Now the basics of life are most important: Food, water, shelter.

As crews work to get power and other utilities put back online and life eventually gets back to normal, we all need some patience.

We need to slow down, realize that everyone is in the same boat and work to conserve our resources and share them where possible.

Gustav may have turned off the lights and made our lives slightly less comfortable, but the storm cannot turn off our spirit.