Most of county stays in dark as icy weather blankets area
Newton County has finally begun to thaw out, after an ice storm left most of the county with no electricity as temperatures stayed below freezing for much of last week.
It began on Feb. 14, when some parts of the county began to see icing weather, as temperatures stayed well below predicted high temperatures, causing freezing rain to fall.
Then overnight Sunday into Monday, freezing rain fell, causing trees, power lines, roadways and the ground to become coated with ice, as much as two inches in spots.
It caused numerous power outages. Tuesday brought snow showers throughout the day that brought as much as another inch of snow to many parts of the county.
As things began to improve on Wednesday, another round of rain and freezing rains complicated issues even further.
Rain causes more power outages, road closures
Rain that fell on Wednesday night has complicated the recovery of Newton County from Monday’s ice storm.
Newton County EMA director Robby Richardson said that the rain caused numerous trees and tree limbs to fall on power lines and local roads. He advised that most roads in the county are impassable, and the power situation has deteriorated.
“All of the work that the power crews did in the last two days was undone by the rain last night,” Richardson said. “I never thought the rain would do that, but it did. It helped with the ice situation, but it caused a lot of tree damage.
“We have trees down all over the county. About 75 percent of the county is without power. We’ve tried to keep the main roads clear, but the county roads are in bad shape. Basically, the only roads that might be passable right are Hwy. 15 and Hwy. 80. If you don’t need to be out on the roads, please don’t drive at this time.”
As much as 85 percent of Newton County power customers lost power during the storms Wednesday, including all of Union and most of Decatur and Newton, along with many other rural areas that may not have ever gotten their power back before Wednesday’s storms.
All of Mississippi Power’s customers had power back by the end of Friday, but as of Tuesday, a handful of residents, especially in the northern part of the county, still did not have power back.
