As soon as the power went out Jan. 24 in Irene Doyle’s family home in Oxford, seemingly every tree surrounding the property began snapping one after another.
“Every 30 seconds, pretty much, you could hear a big branch break or a tree fall, which was very nervewracking,” Doyle, a Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science junior, told The Dispatch on Sunday. “It was that way throughout all of Oxford, from what I can tell, so I don’t know how well people were sleeping exactly.”
The next morning, Doyle and her family were huddled around the fireplace when they heard a snapping sound outside the kitchen window and looked up just in time to see a pine tree crash into the outside of the house.
Winter Storm Fern ripped through Mississippi more than two weeks ago, coating many northern counties in ice up to about an inch thick, dropping temperatures below freezing and leaving thousands without power. Lafayette County, home to Oxford, was among the hardest-hit in the state.
“Once we could kind of get out of the house and go explore a bit, we did so cautiously because trees had knocked down every power line,” Doyle said. “Every pole had fallen, lines were tangled up in trees. We live on a pretty short dead-end road, and there were probably almost a dozen trees that had fallen down just on our road of about eight houses.”
The Doyles’ family car was fully blocked in by downed trees and ice, but two days into the storm, Doyle was already mapping out ways to make it out of Oxford and back to Columbus in time for MSMS to reopen Jan. 28.
“I started thinking about how I could get back to campus because MSMS is a very difficult school, and it’s very hard to make up days that you miss, virtual or not, and I was trying to mitigate as much of that as I could,” Doyle said.
When neighbors stopped by that night before heading to Tupelo, Doyle’s mother gave her 10 minutes to grab everything she needed to hitch a ride. With a full laundry basket in both hands and a bag strapped to her back, Doyle made the short trek through an icy, wooded ravine to their neighbor’s home, guided by a headlamp.
“It was a very almost post-apocalyptic look,” Doyle said, thinking back to the slow and slippery drive out of Oxford. “There were power lines hanging low everywhere and trees downed. Once we made it to the highway though, it was pretty much clear.”
Doyle stayed that night on a close family friend’s farm in Tupelo, where she took her first shower in days. The next day, a friend drove from Columbus to pick her up and bring her back, giving her another warm place to stay before MSMS reopened.
“I don’t know that I’d say I would do it again, but I don’t know that it was necessarily the worst experience honestly,” she said. “I think there were definitely some silver linings to it for me because I was in a good situation”
‘Not hoping for another ice storm anytime soon’
Doyle said going from Oxford to Columbus, which was virtually untouched by the storm, was an odd feeling.
“The first couple of days I was back were a little weird,” she said. “… I just hadn’t had a second to even think about anything school related … and I just did not remember anything we had done before the break and had a hard time seriously focusing on those things to catch up.”
Though their neighborhood was completely without power, Doyle said her family was fortunate to have enough food, a fireplace and a gas-powered grill. They passed the time playing about eight games of Monopoly over the course of two days.
One of the biggest takeaways from the storm for Doyle was watching the community come together as neighbors invited others over for hot meals and worked together with chainsaws to clear fallen trees and power lines so a neighbor with heart problems could be driven to a hospital.
Doyle’s family was without power for two weeks. As the roadways cleared, her brothers were sent to stay with family along the coast while her mother, Alison Doyle, stayed with a friend whose power had been restored.
“What I didn’t admit to them was that it’s certainly harder when it’s freezing cold,” Alison told The Dispatch on Sunday. “I just tried to put on a strong face for the kids. Monday morning we went out and tried to help some of the neighbors and clear the road as much as we could. … It builds character. It’s OK to be uncomfortable and it’s OK to learn how to deal with your emotions in uncomfortable times and learn how to cope with that.”
Things have thankfully begun to settle down, Irene said, with schools in Oxford preparing to reopen as power has been nearly fully restored across the city.
“Even before this, I was not the biggest snow fan,” she said. “I think it’s great for a day or two, and that’s kind of where my limit wears off. I think I definitely feel confident in myself and my family and my community that they will be okay if that were to occur again, but I’m definitely not hoping for another ice storm anytime soon.”
Ginger Tedder, executive director for MSMS, praised Irene’s efforts to return to campus.
“Irene’s determination to return to campus reflects the strong sense of responsibility and commitment our students bring to their education,” Tedder wrote in an email to The Dispatch. “Her actions embody the MSMS spirit, and we are proud of the way she navigated a challenging situation while prioritizing safety throughout the storm.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
