Nearly 90% of Kemper County without power after winter storms

Nearly 90% of Kemper County has been without power since 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,” said East Mississippi Electric Power Association spokeswoman Julie Boles said. “Then the second storm hit. Kemper and Winston counties took the brunt of that storm.”

Boles said that 31,000 total EMEPA customers lost power Wednesday and Winston and Kemper counties made up most of that total.

Today, around 36% of EMEPA’s Kemper County customers remain without power.

“We have most of Scooba and the east side of the county restored, and now we are moving to the westside,” Boles said. 

Along with EMEPA trucks, crews from Prentiss County and the North Central Electric Power Associations along with contract workers are working 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.”

Boles said the crews will work through today as long as it is safe. They expect to work the weekend to get every member reconnected.