NATCHEZ — Miss-Lou officials said county and parish work crews and law enforcement were able to work together to make this week’s snow event as safe as possible for residents.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation announced Thursday afternoon all affected roads and bridges in southwest Mississippi had reopened, including the U.S. 84 eastbound Mississippi River bridge and the U.S. 61 flyover in Natchez.

Even though MDOT had provided some de-icing materials for the Mississippi River bridge, it was temporarily closed due to ice accumulation. Vidalia Police Assistant Chief Bruce Wiley said the closure, which was effected by the Vidalia Police Department, was done for safety but required the effort of multiple jurisdictions.

The level of cooperation between the VPD, MDOT, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and the Natchez Police Department was exactly what was needed, Wiley said, while residents on the ground took the closure in stride.

“We couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Wiley said. “The citizens and people we talked to, they couldn’t have been more cooperative. They were patient and understood for the most part what we were doing and why we were doing it. Sometimes, in times like these, you have to sacrifice convenience for safety.”

Though residents weren’t used to driving on snow and ice, the streets of Vidalia were wreck free, Wiley said.

“For the most part, people knew they needed to stay home, and the people who did come out were paying attention to what they were doing and drove the way they needed to drive,” he said. “We appreciate their cooperation and patience.”

Ice began falling late Monday night, followed by snow in the morning hours and into the day Tuesday. Temperatures that lingered below freezing Wednesday allowed the snow and ice to remain through the day Thursday, when the weather warmed considerably.

According to reports at the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office, the CPSO responded to six wrecks Tuesday and Wednesday.

Reports at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office counted eight wrecks from Tuesday through Thursday morning, while Natchez Police reports indicated responses to seven wrecks. The two agencies had approximately 85 combined responses to drivers needing assistance.

Natchez Mayor Butch Brown said the city’s one-way, hill streets were difficult to navigate in the ice, but the city’s public works department did what it could to make the streets passable.

“Natchez is a tough place to service when you consider our whole town is hills and hollers,’” he said. “When you go up, you have to go down and when you go down, you have to go up.

“I want to give a strong tip of the hat to Justin Dollar and public works staff and Curtis Norton with the traffic control office, and obviously law enforcement officers who were on the street the whole time. Those folks really, really did a great job, and fairly seldom do we get enough accolades from the general public to let them know how strongly we feel about how they endanger themselves in their effort to make us safer.”

Adams County Board of Supervisors President Darryl Grennell likewise praised the county departments involved in the response for long hours — working one night until 4 a.m. — keeping the roads and bridges sanded.

“With the weather phenomena they were working with, there were some things the road department was limited on, roads with inclines and thick ice, but our road department and our maintenance department were on top of anything,” he said.

Grennell said the county government declared a state of emergency for Adams County earlier in the week, which might open up the possibility for federal reimbursement of extra man-hours used during the storm.

“As far as Adams County is concerned, in my opinion, all of our employees involved in responding to this event did a good job,” he said.

Both Brown and Grennell said they felt the response to the storm was timely and well-prepared, and crews would be able to respond to another such storm event should it occur this winter.

“Obviously if we had our wishes, we could have a snow plow,” Brown said. “But snow plows are expensive and we would not have used them very often — two snows in the same winter, we have never had that in my lifetime that I recall, and I doubt there are 10 or 11 snow plows in the entire state.

“We have been able to make do with sanding and front end loaders and that sort of thing, and we think we are prepared for events like these.”

Even with roads closed or limited for two days, Adams County Tax Collector Peter Burns said the state does not have a provision to extend the deadline for those whose taxes are due Feb. 1.

Taxes due on that date include mobile home, personal property and real estate taxes.

However, since Feb. 1 falls on a Saturday, the deadline has been moved to Monday.

Burns said the payments will be considered on time and without penalty as long as they are postmarked Feb. 3.