After a quiet Monday of responding to only three accidents and several more calls of stranded motorists, Mississippi Highway Patrol officers are investigating two crashes and have responded to more than 40 calls for service since Tuesday morning, due to icy roads caused by the winter storm.
“All of a sudden, people kind of don’t want to stay at home or something,” said MHP spokesperson Sgt. Derrick Beckom.
He added that many of the calls for service were 18-wheelers that had attempted to go up hills and slid off the road or jack-knifed as they went downhill. He said none of those was serious.
Local law enforcement have also responded to more car accidents and stranded motorists due to vehicles sliding on the ice, including one accident that resulted in a fatality in Oktibbeha County.
Leander Outlaw, 58, died after the vehicle he was driving on Sixteenth Section Road east of Starkville ran off the road and overturned at about 6 p.m. Monday.
Outlaw is the only fatality reported so far among dozens of calls of car crashes and stranded motorists in the Golden Triangle area since the storm brought sleet and snow to the area on Monday.
Columbus Police Chief Fred Shelton said his officers responded to 10 accidents total, four of them on Tuesday, and about six stranded vehicles, the latter of which was mostly drivers attempting to go around barricades set up to keep vehicles off more dangerous parts of the road.
In Oktibbeha County, Sheriff Steve Gladney said deputies responded to eight accidents and 30 stranded motorist calls since Tuesday. On Monday, deputies responded to fewer than 10 calls.
Neither Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office nor Starkville Police Department reported numbers of accidents to The Dispatch by press time, but SPD took to social media to warn residents and drivers to keep off the road. One such post, published Tuesday afternoon, included videos of vehicles sliding off roads.
“… (Y)ou shouldn’t be on the road unless you have an emergency/essential purpose,” the post reads. “Our staff members have been assisting with recoveries nonstop. This is not time for sightseeing.”
The numbers have also been high in Clay County, said Sheriff Eddie Scott. He said deputies have not compiled total numbers because they are constantly responding to calls from stranded motorists, including at least five this morning.
“It’s kind of melting just a little bit, but as soon as it melts it’s freezing back and making kind of a glaze on (the roads),” Scott said. “It’s these curves and hills where these issues are at.”
In West Point, Police Chief Avery Cook said police responded to fewer than 10 minor accidents on Monday but 20 to 25 such calls Tuesday.
Temperatures have remained below freezing since Sunday with the lowest temperature recorded at 11 degrees at 5 a.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Snow and ice accumulation reached as much as two inches in the Golden Triangle.
Thursday’s forecast calls for light rain with a high of 37 and a low of 21. Friday will be sunny and cold, with a high of 34 and a low of 16.
Utilities: Service restored; no new outages
Utility providers braced for the worst as the winter storm arrived in the Golden Triangle, with crews on call to respond to power outages.
In Starkville and West Point, the worst never came — with no outages reported at all.
In Columbus, about 500 customers saw their power interrupted on Monday, due primarily to breakers being tripped by a surge in usage.
“When the load gets too high it flips a breaker,” Columbus Light and Water Interim Manager Mike Bernsen said. “We have to ride the lines to see where the issue is, but once we identify it, it’s a pretty quick fix. It doesn’t take too long to make the repair, but it seems when we get breaker outage repaired, we have two more called in.”
No other surge-related outages were reported after Monday, Bernsen said, although another 10 customers, mostly businesses along a stretch of Highway 45, lost service when power lines pulled away from the structures.
“In a situation where a line has fallen, we can repair that,” Bernsen said. “But in situations like these, the property owner has to call in an electrician. It’s not something we can work on.”
Starkville Utilities Department General Manager Terry Kemp said there were no outages during the week.
“All of our systems were up and running without interruption,” Kemp said Wednesday. “We were fortunate.”
The only prolonged outages came in Noxubee County and south Lowndes County, where 4-County Electric Power reported 800 customers lost service overnight Sunday. Jon Turner, spokesman for 4-County, said 300 of those customers were returned to service by the end of the day Monday with the other 500 having service restored by 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“Now, we’re waiting to see what happens (Wednesday night),” Turner said. “Hopefully, by Thursday, we’ll be able to say we dodged a bullet.”
Schools staying all virtual
Classes in the Columbus Municipal School District and the Lowndes County School District will be held virtually today.
CMSD Superintendent Cherie Labat said since today classes are already virtual under the school’s hybrid schedule, students will not be affected, although she urged caution to teachers as they travel to school. Teachers were asked to notify their principals if driving conditions prevented or delayed their arrival at their schools.
LCSD Superintendent Sam Allison said students will be given assignments to work on virtually.
“They’ll have some assignments, but it won’t be like a regular school day,” Allison said.
Both districts will make a determination later today how Thursday classes will be handled.
“Transportation is the big issue for us,” Allison said. “We’ll get out … and see where things stand and make a decision based on that. We understand there could be some more bad weather for Thursday, so we’ll take that into consideration, too.”
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District has also canceled in-person classes for today and Thursday due to continued freezing forecasts, according to an email to parents from Superintendent Eddie Peasant. Students will continue to participate in distance learning as they have all week, and Peasant said teachers are providing distance learning schedules and lesson information to students and their families.
Mississippi University for Women has closed its offices through at least today, Mississippi State through Thursday and East Mississippi Community College through Friday. All three schools are holding virtual classes.
Shelter remains open at Columbus FBC
The Golden Triangle Homeless Coalition opened a shelter/warming shelter Sunday evening at the Salvation Army, but it relocated to First Baptist Church on Monday, which provided more space to allow for social distancing.
Coalition co-president Sandra DePriest said 10 people were placed in hotels on Monday night during the transition to FBC.
“We had nine people at FBC overnight (Tuesday),” Depriest said, “Everything went smoothly. We have plenty of food and First Baptist has just been wonderful.”
DePriest said the shelter is open to homeless people or those who may not have adequate heating in their homes through Friday.
Postal deliveries
The U.S. Postal Service, which suspended mail delivery in the Golden Triangle Tuesday, returned to normal operations today.
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