WARREN COUNTY, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
The gusty winds toppled trees in Vicksburg. One fell across Porters Chapel Road at Wisconsin Avenue. It stopped traffic dead in its tracks and snapped power lines, even sparking a fire on a power pole.
"Darkest I've seen daylight for a long time. It's pretty dark," said Richard Hunt, Manager of Super Junior Express on Halls Ferry Road.
But it wasn't just the skies that darkened for Hunt. The broken power lines caused a blackout for his store. His building did not sustain any damage.
"It's probably been 20 or 30 (customers) been turned away since then, a lot of people used our canopy to shelter during the storm, which is fine for me. Some came inside, were hiding out with us in the building when it passed over," he said.
Emergency management officials continue to assess the damage from the storm, and Entergy will be restoring power throughout the night.
"We still don't have all our assessments in from the damage right now," said Entergy Spokesman Don Arnold. "Also had some damage in the northern part of Warren County, up around Oak Ridge, we had several poles broken in that area."
In Jackson, the wind didn't cause the headaches, the rain did. Police had to tend to numerous Interstate accidents, including a tractor trailer that slid off the I-20 Westbound roadway, a semi that jack-knifed on I-20 outside of Brandon, and a two vehicle wreck, also on I-20.
During the lunch hour, people tried to stay dry amid flash flooding on State Street and other streets downtown.
Copyright 2012 WLBT. All rights reserved.
WLBT 3 - Fox 40
