Families still without power after severe weather blows through Chickasaw County

CHICKASAW CO., Miss. (WCBI)- Winds gusted over 50 miles per hour all over Chickasaw county on Saturday leaving homes damaged and hundreds of residents without power

“This isn’t just a regular storm that we usually have. It did affect the entire county one way or the other,” said Chickasaw County EMA Director Linda Griffin.

Homes damaged, debris in the road, and people still without power.

“It was widespread over the county and lots of people without power due to the power lines being down,” said Griffin.

One family has been without electricity for 24 hours.

“You can see the branches and everything, but after it stopped, we expected everything to go back to normal, and we just sat around and waited until we couldn’t stay here anymore,” said LaTonya Atkins.

The severe weather sent LaTanya Atkins and her family to a relative’s house.

“We went and stayed at a cousin’s house last night, and we were hoping that by the time we got out of church this morning that they would be back own and since their not. We’re actually loading up right now to go back to the cousin’s house,” said Atkins.

She says it’s just a waiting process.

“I was saying hopefully after church, but now I’m saying hopefully by tomorrow when we get back home from work and everything and staying at our cousin’s house,” said Atkins.

Although their family can’t stay in their home, everything is OK.

“We’re blessed because that wind was out of the world, and we actually watched it and to still be here and to witness that and to just not have lights; we’re still blessed,” said Atkins.

After severe weather poured through Chickasaw county, you can see that trees are still down and in residents yards, and Griffin says that clean up may take a while.

“It’ll take several more weeks on the cleanup part bc we did have so many trees down, and it wasn’t just small trees; it was large,” said Griffin.

She urges people to put their safety first.

“We’re trying to stress to those out working trying to get the trees up. Their power may have been out when the trees first fell and when they get that power restored those areas, and we still have people working trying to clean trees up, it can be a danger,” said Griffin.

Natchez Trace Electric Power Company and Okalona Electric have been working non-stop to restore power to all residents.