EMEPA close to restoring all customers

The East Mississippi Electric Power Association expected to have electricity restored to most of its Kemper County customers by Wednesday.

“We are getting close,” said EMEPA spokeswoman Julie Boles. “If you include last Monday’s and Wednesday’s storms, we had around 32,000 customers out. We hope by this Wednesday to have everyone will be back on.”    

Nearly 90 percent of Kemper County was without power since last Wednesday when the second of two major winter storms hit the area.

“We had gotten the number of power outages in Kemper County down to single digits from the first storm,” Boles said. “Then the second storm hit. Kemper and Winston counties took the brunt of that storm.”

Along with EMEPA trucks, crews from Prentiss County and the North Central Electric Power Associations along with contract workers worked to reestablish service.

“We start at our substations and work our way out,” Boles said. “The farther out we get, the more individual service lines we find and it takes time.”

Kemper County board of supervisors president Pat Granger said the county pulled together when times were hard.

“We appreciate all the workers and volunteers who worked during the storm,” Granger said, “The people pulled together to make sure everyone made it through the storm.”