Mississippi
For North Mississippi, a return to normal still weeks away after historic ice storm
Ripley, Mississippi — A large white generator on a flatbed tow truck was a beacon of hope Thursday for the volunteer fire department in the small northern Mississippi community of Gravestown, which has been without power and running water for five days following an ice storm the likes of which the state hasn’t seen in more than 30 years.
“We’re very grateful for them,” Gravestown Fire Chief Kenny Childs told CBS News of the dozens of generators that have been distributed statewide by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of the storm. “We had no water, no power, no nothing. So, you know, it is great.”
Childs said he’s been informed by the leadership of his local electric company that it will be another seven to 15 days before his community gets power restored, so the generator will be a crucial item for the near future.
“That’s a lot with no power,” Childs said.
FEMA has sent 90 generators to Mississippi since last weekend’s storm. Subcontractors hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are installing them at critical agencies and businesses, like long-term care facilities, hospitals, water districts and fire departments.
Childs said the generator at his fire house will not only help his team respond to emergencies, but it will also provide a warm shelter for Gravestown residents to come stay and charge their electronic items, such as cell phones.
“It will help the community, and it will help us, it’s wonderful,” Childs said.
Senior electrician Kenny Jones, of Atlanta, Georgia, has been traveling the Southeast for several days to help install the generators in hard-hit areas.
“It’s amazing,” Jones said. “Actually, you see the smile on people’s faces when you actually bring power to them, and they get hot water again and able to take showers. Just a cozy feeling on the inside.”
About an hour south, in Oxford, Mississippi, hundreds of power crews from several neighboring states have arrived to help repair miles of downed power lines the storm left in its wake.
Keith Hayward, CEO of the Northeast Mississippi Power Association, said the ice accumulation was overwhelming, despite an updated, more reinforced system in place.
“We believe we had an inch-and-a-quarter (of) ice over most of our system, which is basically a record for anything around this area,” Hayward said. “We’ve had tree damage that is unbelievable… and by the time the ice loading gets to that kind of loading, with an inch of ice on either side, those poles are holding up nearly 10,000 pounds of extra weight. And, so, you can just imagine when a tree falls and they have that extra weight, what it does to the power systems.”
He added, “We haven’t lost a ton of poles, but we have got a lot of wire on the ground. A lot of tree damage, a lot of vegetation damage. A lot of people have trees on their houses. They can’t get out of their driveways, and it is system wide. We cover 2,200 miles of primary line that we have over about a 75-mile radius, and it was from one side to the other.”
While he believes most customers will get power back on within the next three days, he says it could still be another week for some of his more rural customers.
That could spell out serious danger with another round of severe cold temperatures expected this weekend for the East Coast.
“It is very, very, disheartening for me… I grew up in this community. I’ve lived here my entire life,” Hayward said. “I feel for them, they have to go through these conditions and, you know, the loss that they’re suffering, not only from not having power, but the damage that they’ve had on their homes and things.”
For Oxford residents like Jerrica Pryor, a teacher at a local middle school, relief can’t come soon enough. With no power and no running water, she has been living off snack food, and spending time in her car to warm up periodically.
She uses a small space heater sparingly to warm up at night.
“It has been difficult,” Pryor said. “Lots of blankets, lots and lots of blankets.”
With tears in her eyes, she said she was most worried about her students and how they’re faring in the dark and cold.
“I do miss them, I just hope they’re well,” she said. “It hurts a little bit, because they are on a different side, and I’m able to stay warm, and I just hope they are as well.”
Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill said the city is doing everything possible to restore basic services to residents. She likened the storm to something more like a tornado.
Due to a water pressure issue, the city had to turn off water supplies to several neighborhoods to ensure the city’s hospital had enough water to care for patients. Tannehill believes the water pressure issue may have been caused by burst pipes that froze during the storm, or by heightened water demands from so many residents dripping pipes to prevent them from freezing and breaking.
Lafayette County Emergency Management has set up several new ready-to-eat meal and water distribution sites for residents in dire straights. The National Guard arrived in Oxford on Wednesday to help deliver those supplies to people in need.
Lafayette County, which includes the city of Oxford, has set a distribution limit of three days’ worth of supplies per person “to help ensure supplies reach as many residents as possible,” Lafayette County spokesperson Bo Moore said.
As of Thursday evening, Moore said nearly half of Lafayette County was still without power.
Moore also told CBS News the county is using the National Guard’s helicopter for medical transports to Memphis, Tennessee, because the roads are still too hazardous for ambulances to drive through safely.
“It’s going to be a long road to recovery,” Tannehill responded when asked when things may get back to normal. “It’s hard to even get our minds to that right now when we still have people without power and without water.”
GEORGE COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) — A George County High School senior is dead after an SUV hit him while bicycling on Highway 26 Friday night.
Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) officials said at 8:15 p.m. the MHP responded to a fatal crash on Highway 26 in George County.
Those officials said a Ford SUV traveling west on Highway 26 collided with 18-year-old Tyree Bradley of McLain, Mississippi, who was bicycling.
Bradley was fatally injured and died at the scene, MHP officials said.
The crash remains under investigation by the MHP.
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Some losses feel like they drag on longer than the box score suggests, and Mississippi State’s 3-1 opener at Texas A&M fits that category.
It wasn’t a blowout. It wasn’t a game where the Bulldogs looked outmatched.
It was just one of those nights where the early mistakes stuck around and the offense never quite found the swing that could shake them loose.
The frustrating part is how quickly the hole formed. Two solo homers and a wild pitch in the first two innings put Mississippi State behind 3-0, and that was basically the ballgame.
Against a top tier SEC team on the road, spotting three runs that early is a tough ask. The Bulldogs didn’t fold, but they also didn’t cash in when the door cracked open.
“I liked our fight. I think we’re really just working through some things offensively, and trying to stay together,” Mississippi State coach Samantha Ricketts said. “This team still believes, and we’re going to battle and fight every chance we get, and I think I saw a lot of that. I’m encouraged for what that means for us moving forward, but, you know, they’re a good hitting team, and we’ve got to be able to shut them down early. I don’t think Peja [Goold] had her best stuff, but she continued to battle out there and find ways to get outs.”
They had chances. Two runners stranded in the fifth. Two more in the sixth. Another in the seventh. Des Rivera finally got the Bulldogs on the board with an RBI single, but the big hit that usually shows up for this lineup never arrived.
It wasn’t a lack of traffic. It was a lack of finish.
If there was a bright spot, it came from the bullpen. Delainey Everett gave Mississippi State exactly what it needed after the rocky start.
“That was just a huge relief appearance by Delaney to keep us in it,” Ricketts said. “It’s really good to have her back and healthy these last few weeks because these are the moments where we really need her and rely on her. We know that she’s going to be a big part of the remainder of the season going forward as well.”
Three hitless innings, one baserunner, and a reminder that she’s quietly putting together a strong stretch.
There were individual positives too. Nadia Barbary keeps climbing the doubles list. Kiarra Sells keeps finding ways on base.
But the bigger picture is simple. Mississippi State is now 6-10 in the SEC, and the margin for error is shrinking. Nights like this one are the difference between climbing back into the race and staying stuck in the middle.
They get another shot this morning with the schedule bumped up for weather. The formula isn’t complicated.
Clean up the early innings, keep getting quality relief, and find one or two timely swings. The Bulldogs didn’t get them Friday. They’ll need them today.
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Mississippi
Mississippi farmers struggle through years without profit as war with Iran deepens crisis
YAZOO COUNTY, Miss. — Mississippi Delta farmers are facing another expensive planting season as fertilizer and fuel costs continue to climb.
Farmers in Yazoo and Sharkey counties, Clay Adcock and Jeffrey Mitchell, said it has been years since their crops turned a real profit.
“I guess it would be since 2022,” Adcock said.
“Last 2.5 to three years since we had a very profitable year,” Mitchell said.
Rising input costs squeeze farmers
Adcock said he was paying $300 per ton of fertilizer before the war with Iran broke out. He is now paying double for the same amount. Mitchell saw similar spikes.
“Fertilizer was up 25% before the Iranian conflict already,” Mitchell said. “Then since that started Diesel fuel is up 40% in the last six months.”
Survey and research from the American Farm Bureau show they are not the only ones feeling the pinch.
“We’ve got trouble with the farming community,” Adcock said. “And you can see that with the bankruptcies that are there and no young farmers that can afford the capital to get started.”
Mitchell said today’s farmers face a shrinking industry of suppliers. 75% of all fertilizer in the U.S. comes from four companies: Yara USA, CF Industries, Nutrien and Koch Industries.
“With the world market on fertilizer, pretty much everyone has the same price,” Mitchell said. “It’s not like you can go to store B, get a better price.”
forces
Oil and natural gas cut off in the Strait of Hormuz forces energy companies worldwide to compete for less supply. The spike in costs passes on to fertilizer producers, who pass higher prices on to distributors, leaving family farms at the end of the line with the most expensive bills.
“They deliver it to us and we’re at their mercy,” Adcock said.
Adcock said he would like to see more regulation to even the playing field among fertilizer companies and prevent potential price gouging.
“There should be guiderails in place to keep fertilizer producers within a range and if they get out of that range it throws up red flags as they do in the SEC with stocks,” Adcock said. “Have some consistency in our business.”
Mitchell said the costs will circle back to consumers at the store. The spike in diesel also increases the cost of transporting finished crops after harvest to stores.
“Everything will be higher once it gets to Kroger or Wal-Mart or wherever,” Mitchell said. “They’ll just pass it onto consumers.”
It is too early to tell what the final prices will look like once harvest season is over. Each farmer said one way consumers can help is to buy as much produce as possible directly from farmers at markets and buy American items.
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