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As frigid temperatures persist, supplies dwindle and roads remain impassable, tens of thousands of Mississippians remain without power. For some, there is no clear end in sight. 

Heather Hurt of Corinth had been without power for almost 60 hours on Tuesday afternoon. To keep herself and four children between the ages of 5 and 14 warm, she has been using a generator to run one space heater and three heated blankets. The family has been huddling in a bedroom to stay warm since Sunday in their home. 

Monday night, for dinner and to entertain the kids, the family taste-tested an array of ready-to-eat meals and cooked Polish sausages over Hanukkah candles Hurt found in the cupboard. Tuesday, they were using a terracotta pot and candles to fashion a makeshift stove to boil water for ramen. 

The family cannot leave the house because the roads in their neighborhood are impassable without four-wheel drive, Hurt said. She grew up in Indiana and is used to wintery weather, but said the conditions now in the northeastern corner of Mississippi — ice-covered roads, snapped trees and fallen power lines — are much worse. 

“This is a whole different ballpark,” Hurt said. 

Winter Storm Fern has caused subfreezing temperatures, icy roads and power outages across Mississippi.

Ten people were injured Tuesday when a canopy collapsed above gas pumps in Greenville, bringing the total injured in the state as a result of the severe weather to 13, Gov. Tate Reeves said. Four deaths had been reported in Mississippi as of Tuesday, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. 

The state has the highest proportion of customers in the country —about 9% — still without power, according to poweroutage.us. As of Tuesday evening, more than 128,000 homes and businesses were without power. 

Among the hardest hit are customers of the Tippah Electric Power Association, which serves Alcorn, Benton, Tippah and Union counties in northeast Mississippi. The utility company had the highest percentage of customers without power in the state on Tuesday – about 90% – according to poweroutage.us. On Monday, Tippah EPA said restoring electricity to customers could take weeks.

Eight substations powered by the Tennessee Valley Authority in northern Mississippi had no power flowing to them, according to a Tuesday statement from Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi, a nonprofit that represents Tippah EPA and other member utility companies. 

TVA is working diligently to restore power and hoped to have electricity provided to the substations “some time on Tuesday,” according to the cooperative organization.

“To be clear, electric energy provided to the substation does not mean that members will receive power immediately,” TVA said.

Dangerous roads, low temperatures, and failing limbs are also impacting crews’ ability to restore power to northern Mississippi and the Delta.

President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Mississippi on Saturday, and Reeves deployed the Mississippi National Guard Monday to help with logistics and getting emergency supplies to parts of the state hit hardest by the storm. The Mississippi National Guard is delivering commodities by aircraft to Alcorn County Tuesday, Reeves said in a statement.

The federal emergency declaration authorizes FEMA to support Mississippi’s state-led emergency response. 

FEMA is working to assess impacts throughout the state, and the federal agency has brought in trailerloads of meals, water, tarps, blankets, cots and 60 generators, as well as personnel to install them, Rob Ashe, acting regional administrator for FEMA Region 4, told Mississippi Today on Tuesday. 

Ashe said he has also deployed six division supervisors, who will be placed in the most heavily impacted counties, to support local emergency managers. 

The large swath of states impacted, in addition to Mississippi, make this natural disaster unique, Ashe said. 

“The scale of this is different,” he said. 

Victoria Lavanway of Saltillo lost power Sunday and regained it Monday morning. But road conditions made it impossible for her and her husband to go see her mother-in-law, who lives near Memphis and was battling cancer, before she died Sunday.  

“It’s just been a lot, you know,” Lavanway said to Mississippi Today.

Lavanway’s parents, who are in their late 50s and live in Slayden, near the state’s northern border, have been out of power and water since Sunday. Their limited supply of gasoline for a generator was running out. 

Her parents have spent two days bundled up on the front porch in the sun to conserve energy so they can use their generator at night. The high temperature was 36 degrees Tuesday. 

Another daughter with running power lives 15 minutes away from them, in Byhalia, but the couple cannot travel the short distance to her because ice and snow covering the roads, along with highways backed up with 18-wheelers, have made the path unnavigable, Lavanway said. 

“It’s like pure devastation,” she said. 

The Mississippi Department of Transportation strongly advised people to travel for emergency reasons only. Densely packed ice and freezing temperatures are making it difficult to plow in northern parts of the state, the agency said Tuesday. 

“We ask the traveling public to remain patient while we recover from this devastating storm,” said MDOT Executive Director Brad White. “Please give our crews space to clear roadways safely.”

More than 90 homes, three businesses and seven farms have reported damage, though the numbers are expected to rise as assessments continue.

Pastor Levi Burcham of Gospel Tabernacle in Corinth said roughly 100 people were staying at the church Tuesday. He said the number of people at the warming shelter, which is run by A Place of Grace, has grown as days have gone by, as most of the county is without power and water. 

All types of people have congregated at the church for warmth and shelter, Burcham said. 

“I’m in the same boat at my house, no heat outside of a generator, no running water,” he said. 

As a paramedic firefighter, Hurt caught her first glimpse of the coming devastation as she worked a shift Saturday night into Sunday morning. She said she expects the damage to be much greater than is currently known, given the widespread power outages, limited water supplies in some areas and obstructed roads. 

“I feel like we’re going to have a lot more fatalities than people realize when things are cleared up,” she said. 

Most Mississippi public school teachers are in the middle of a six-week payday gap. 

Their last payday was on Dec. 19, before winter break and amid several holidays. A bill authored by Rep. Zakiyah Summers, a Democrat from Jackson, would add a payday in early January, giving teachers financial relief before the end of the month.

House Bill 1420, or the Spring-Step Teacher Pay Bridge Act, has bipartisan interest, she said. The fight to improve teachers’ quality of life has a direct impact on student success, she said.

“We know that when we’re positioning our teachers to be successful, we’re also positioning our schools to be successful, our districts, and of course our communities to be successful as well,” Summers said.  

The bill is with the House Education and Appropriations committees. There is no guarantee that it will progress.

“We’re looking into it,” said Rob Roberson, chairman of the House Education Committee and a Republican from Starkville. “We’re trying to find an option that doesn’t necessarily include having to change a law, but works with MDE (the Mississippi Department of Education) to help alleviate some of the stress on teachers.”

“I understand the problem she’s trying to solve,” Roberson said of Summers. “I want our solution to be one that we can get districts to buy into as well.”

In a Facebook post announcing the bill, Summers said teachers are “the soldiers in the classrooms” and critical to schools’ success. 

“Teachers should not have to struggle financially just because of how the calendar falls,” Summers wrote.“This bill recognizes the reality of educators’ lives and provides stability when it’s needed most.”

Summers’ bill would split teachers’ monthly salary in half for January, with one payment on Jan. 7 and the other at the end of the month. For now, the stretch between mid-December, which includes the winter holiday season, is particularly stressful for teachers, said Nick Johnson, a teacher in Grenada. 

The time between December and January pay is a reminder “that passion pays the heart, not always the bills,” Johnson said. What many assume is a relaxing time for teachers, is actually the more stressful, he said.

“So while the calendar says ‘break,’ the bank account says ‘budget carefully,’ and the mind says, ‘you’re still on,’” Johnson said. “That gap is when you really learn how to budget, how to stretch a check, and how much you do this job for purpose, and not pay.”

Educators have told Mississippi Today about discouraging colleagues from frequenting payday loan stores in January. Administrators, including former Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District Superintendent Mary Johnson, have said biweekly paydays for teachers help with retention. 

Biweekly pay is doable, but with challenges

State law has allowed Mississippi public school districts to pay teachers semimonthly, or every two weeks, since 2022.

Four school districts — Lowndes County, Greenwood, Holly Springs and Harrison County — adopted biweekly pay in time for the 2025-26 school year.

Gulfport School District adopted biweekly pay but reverted to monthly pay. Processing more payments required more staff,  Superintendent Glen East said. Officials from six other districts shared similar concerns with Mississippi Today.

Chris Chism, superintendent of Pearl Public School district, has researched whether it was possible to pay teachers later in December to shorten the gap between their January pay. However, state law requires school districts to pay employees on the last working day of December.

“If they would just rescind that law, then you could actually just pay at the end of December, and that would solve the problem,” Chism said.

Banks routinely hold paychecks until the end of the month for companies, and can easily do so also for school district employees, said Paige Bromen, chief financial officer of Pearl schools.

Paying employees in mid-December could also strain district finances, Bromen said, because the state pays school systems’ funding allotment the last week of each month. The state Department of Education can only provide school districts with their monthly funding allocation “two business days prior to the last working day of each month,” according to state law.

Raising teacher pay, which proponents say could help with recruitment and retention, is already on the agenda for state legislators this session. Some educators say closing the winter pay gap could help too.

What may seem to be a small change could make a big difference with attracting people to the profession, said Ebony Rice, president of the Jackson Federation of Teachers. 

“Our teachers work extremely hard in the classroom. The expectations that they are faced with on a daily basis are more than ever before,” Rice said. “Teaching is … a lot more complicated than it used to be. It’s a lot more demanding than it used to be.”

Closing the winter pay gap, she said, could help current teachers “feel more comfortable with staying here in the state of Mississippi as opposed to leaving.”

A former teacher inspired HB 1420 bill and, Summers said, made her aware of a burden that’s likely unknown to non-educators. 

“Teachers are the true champions in the classroom that make the difference between whether or not we’re at the bottom of the education ratings or where we are now,” Summers said. “This is one thing we can do for them.”

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

Mississippi is facing a child care crisis.

Those directly impacted –  our kids, working parents and day care providers – are calling on the state to utilize existing state and federal Temporary Aid for Needy Families funds to fill the gap and ensure all eligible working families have access to child care.

As a state senator proudly representing the hard-working families of Hinds County, I’m joining them in that call.

The crisis is coming from many directions. As a result of expired pandemic funds, nearly 20,000 families in Mississippi are now on a growing wait list for child care vouchers – coupons that make child care affordable for low-income working parents. Then there’s President Donald Trump’s federal budget bill, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which pays for trillions of dollars in tax cuts to billionaires and corporations by cutting Medicaid and food assistance for hundreds and thousands of our neighbors. And the bill’s child care provisions do little to help the crisis families face.

On top of all of that, this year the federal government announced a federal funding freeze, paired with a notice that it was rescinding rules permitting states to pay providers without verifying attendance logs. All of this has added to the confusion and stress of Mississippi’s child care providers, and the parents who depend on them.

But these are not just numbers, statistics, legislative or executive actions. These are thousands of working families without vouchers trying to piece together haphazard child care with family members, or going into debt with their child care providers.

Child care providers carry the burden too, eating the cost and risking closure. Child care providers are small business owners and  have monthly obligations that they must meet.

I recently had an opportunity to tour the Agape Christian Academy World Day Care in my district and learned firsthand the challenges the child care center is facing daily. The owner, Cantrell Keyes, told me that her center has the capacity to serve 75 students, but because of the cut in vouchers her center is now serving only 22 students.

Her center once received $23,00 per month in child care vouchers, but is now receiving $5,000 a month. Her overhead is the same. This has put stress on her center to make payroll and to keep the center open to provide quality child care to these families.

Many parents are facing a dilemma of whether to work or to stay home with their children because they cannot afford to pay for quality child care. Leaving their child at home unattended is not an option.

I spoke with Sharon Watson, a single parent who works in the private sector. As a result of the voucher crisis, her payment for child care went from $60 a week to $200 a week. That limits what she can provide for her child. She said that she is thankful that Cantrell Keyes at Agape Christian Academy World Day Care understands her circumstances and is working with her to continue providing the quality care that her child is receiving.

Cutting off or slowing child care funding worsens the state’s affordability crisis, with disastrous impacts for parents, children, workers and the economy.

It just takes one day without child care for a parent to lose a  job, and only a few weeks without funding for a child care provider to shut its doors for good. According to a recent survey by the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, 170 licensed child care centers in the state closed in 2025. That’s the highest number in nearly a decade. But Mississippi officials have the power and the money to act. 

It just so happens that the Mississippi Department of Human Services has $156 million in stockpiled federal TANF funds that can be used to address the child care voucher wait list and ensure thousands of families get the child care they need, allowing providers to keep doing their invaluable work. Using part of the $156 million can provide immediate relief.

I was encouraged to see Mississippi Human Services Director Bob Anderson commit to pursuing a solution to address this crisis at a state Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee meeting on Jan. 21. He was also open to receiving $60 million in state appropriations to address this crisis.

With the cost of care for one child averaging $5,000-$7,000 a year and not enough child care for families who need it, working families are finding it harder and harder to access care they can afford. Mississippi should learn from other states like New Mexico, which recently made child care free for everyone.

In this crisis, it is essential the state acts swiftly. Families and day care providers alike are counting on us. And in the future, we need a new approach to avoid a crisis like this from happening again.

This is possible, if we work together and prioritize the prosperity of working families in our great state. 

Bio: Democratic Sen. Hillman Frazier has represented state Senate District 27 in Hinds County since 1993. Frazier, a consultant, previously served in the Mississippi House.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar says he will allow his committee to vote on the House’s school choice measure, but he’s still convinced the proposal to spend public money on private schooling will not pass in the Senate. Why are senators opposed to this? He explains.

Years after turmoil within the Lexington Police Department and allegations surfaced of discriminatory policing practices, excessive force and retaliation against critics, the city has adopted federally recommended reforms and has ousted its police chief. 

“These victories demonstrate the power of lawful protest and civic engagement, and they show that our methods are effective. We thank the community for standing together to demand change, and we commend the aldermen for finally heeding the community’s voice,” attorney Jill Collen Jefferson, founder of the legal organization JULIAN, said in a statement. 

JULIAN filed the first lawsuit against the city and police department in 2022 that is scheduled for oral argument before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals next week. Other lawsuits have alleged retaliatory use of force and unlawful detention by the Lexington police. 

The U.S. Department of Justice opened a pattern and practice investigation into the Lexington police in 2023, and less than a year later it released its investigation report detailing the department’s violations of the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments. The DOJ found Lexington police jailed people for unpaid fines without determining whether people could afford to pay, resulting in a “two-tiered system of justice.”

Lexington, located at the edge of the Delta, is majority Black and 30% of the population is in poverty, according to U.S. Census estimates. 

To remedy the constitutional violations, the Justice Department made several recommendations for the city to adopt, which include ensuring that officers who make stops, searches and arrests are authorized to use force with clear direction, have sufficient training and supervision and improve record-keeping to hold officers accountable for inappropriate or unlawful conduct.

The recommendations address issues related to leadership, policing, compliance, accountability and community trust, according to JULIAN. 

In December, Alderman Isaac Lindsey introduced a motion for the city to implement the recommendations, but that came up a vote short, with Mayor Percy Washington and two aldermen forming the majority, according to the legal organization. 

In response to the board’s failure to take action, JULIAN called for a citywide boycott of Lexington’s primary stores, Dollar General and Sunflower. 

JULIAN considers the boycott a success because on Jan. 6, Lindsey reintroduced his motion and the board approved it. Before the vote, several supporters called for the board to implement the DOJ recommendations and put the decision into writing.

“It’s that simple,” said meeting attendee Benita Streeter. “Just put it on there, make a motion, sign off on it, say it in writing so the people will know.” 

Another change came the same week when the board called a special meeting and dismissed its police chief, Charles Henderson, an action JULIAN has called for. In his place, former chief Robert Kirklin was appointed as interim leader until the board chooses a new, permanent chief. 

The Board of Aldermen did not provide a reason for Henderson’s departure. But a Jan. 9 letter from the Department of Public Safety’s Office of Standards and Training Special Investigations Unit said Henderson’s law enforcement certification was suspended effective immediately, meaning he is not permitted to hold a law enforcement, emergency telecommunicator or jail detention position. 

“This decision is due to Charles Henderson’s record of conduct or actions that violate the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics and significantly diminish public trust in the competence and reliability of a law enforcement officer,” the letter states. 

Such violations of the code of ethics can result in reprimand, suspension under conditions, recall or cancellation of law enforcement certification, the letter states. 

The referenced violation didn’t take place in Lexington, but in Jackson on Nov. 15, 2024, when Henderson worked for the Jackson Police Department. 

Henderson could not be reached for comment Monday. 

A spokesperson from JULIAN did not have details about the Jackson incident. A spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety was not immediately able to comment Monday due to winter storm-related office closures. 

Policing in Lexington has been the subject of scrutiny since 2022 when a recording was leaked of then Police Chief Sam Dobbins using racial and homophobic slurs when talking about using force while on the job, including the killing of 13 people. A former Lexington officer had made the recording.

“I shot that n—– 119 times, ok?” said Dobbins, who is white, about the shooting of one person. 

The story made national news, and in July 2022, the aldermen voted 3-2 to terminate Dobbins, which community members celebrated. Former mayor Robin McCrory, who is white, and some aldermen called Dobbins’ statements “locker room talk.” In his place, they appointed Henderson, Dobbins’ second in command, as chief. 

Lexington residents, JULIAN and other advocates continued to attend aldermen meetings and demonstrate against actions of the police department under Henderson, who is Black. 

Jefferson is among those whom Lexington police arrested. She was jailed in 2023 while filming a traffic stop from her car on a public street and spent a weekend in the county facility. A week earlier, Jefferson spoke with Justice Department officials, who visited the city. 

In February 2024, Jefferson was convicted of misdemeanor charges, but days later a Holmes County Justice Court judge rescinded the convictions. 

This is the second time the Civil Rights Division has taken action in Lexington, the Justice Department wrote in its report.  

In 1963, a group of Black residents, now known as the “First Fourteen,” tried to register to vote at the courthouse and were met by the sheriff, other government officials and police. When asked who in the group would be first, Hartman Turnbow said he would die to vote. A group of white men firebombed his home, and Turnbow was falsely arrested and charged with the arson of his home. With DOJ intervention, the county later dropped the charges against him. 

Areas of Mississippi were still reeling on Monday from the aftermath of the weekend winter storm — including local elementary and secondary schools and colleges. 

Many will remain closed on Tuesday. See a list of school closures below. 

For some colleges still dealing with power outages, that meant ensuring students and others on campus had warm places to retreat to and hot meals regardless of whether they have paid meal plans.

Delta State University, for example, will open its Statesman’s Shelf Food Pantry on Tuesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Young-Mauldin Cafeteria will be open through Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., according to the university. Delta State students and essential staff can eat hot meals in the cafeteria and take home bagged dinners when they stop by for brunch, spokeswoman Suzette Matthews said in an email. Officials aim to return to regular hours and offering three meals a day by Thursday, Matthews said. 

“And we are SO SO thankful for our staff for making this happen,” Matthews said in the email.

In a Monday Facebook post, Delta State President Daniel Ennis noted lingering safety concerns such as icy roads around campus and interruptions in cell phone service.

“We’re having a cold day on campus, but with power and food; we’re better off than some,” Ennis wrote. “Our facilities crew continues to make progress clearing paths, and the student center has been opened for off-campus students who are still without power.”

K–12 schools across the state are also responding to lingering weather hazards. Roughly half of Mississippi’s public school districts closed or implemented virtual learning on Monday. Dozens plan to remain closed Tuesday or for longer. 

The following list of school closures is not comprehensive.

Public K-12 schools

• Attala County School District
• Benton County School District
• Chickasaw County School District
• Claiborne County School District
• Clarksdale Municipal School District
• Cleveland School District
• Coahoma County School District
• Copiah County School District
• DeSoto County Schools: Closed through Wednesday
• East Tallahatchie School District: Closed all week
• Forest Municipal School District
• Greenville Public School District
• Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District: Closed all week
• Hinds County School District
• Hollandale School District
• Holly Springs School District: Closed through Wednesday
• Holmes County Consolidated School District
• Humphreys County School District
• Jefferson County School District
• Kosciusko School District
• Lafayette County School District: Closed all week
• Leake County School District: Two-hour delayed start
• Lee County School District
• Leflore Legacy Academy Public Charter School
• Leland School District
• Madison County Schools: Velma Jackson school zone is closed for the day. Ridgeland, Germantown and Madison school zones will have a two-hour delayed start except for East Flora Elementary, which will remain closed. Flora students who attend Madison Middle School, Rosa Scott School or Madison Central High School will be excused.
• McComb School District
• Mississippi Schools for Deaf and the Blind
• Natchez-Adams School District
• New Albany School District
• North Bolivar Consolidated School District
• North Panola School District: Closed for the rest of the week
• Noxubee County School District
• Okolona Separate School District
• Oxford School District: Closed all week
• Pontotoc City School District
• Quitman County School District
• Scott County School District: Delayed start at 10 a.m.
• Senatobia School District: Closed through Wednesday
• South Delta School District
• South Panola School District: Close the rest of the week
• SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy: Delayed start at 9 a.m.
• Sunflower County Consolidated School District
• Tate County School District: Closed through Wednesday
• Tishomingo County School District
• Tunica County School District
• Tupelo Public School District
• Vicksburg Warren School District
• West Bolivar Consolidated School District
• West Tallahatchie School District
• Western Line School District
• Wilkinson County School District
• Winona-Montgomery School District
• Yazoo City Municipal School District 
• Yazoo County School District

Colleges and universities (public and private)

• Coahoma County Community College: Closed through Wednesday
• Copiah–Lincoln Community College
• Delta State University: Closed through Wednesday
• East Central Community College: Operating virtually
• Hinds Community College: Operating virtually
• Itawamba Community College
• Jones College: Open at 10 a.m. Classes scheduled to start before 11 a.m. will meet virtually.
• Meridian Community College: Open at 9 a.m.
• Mississippi Delta Community College
• Mississippi Valley State University
• Northeast Mississippi Community College
• Northwest Mississippi Community College: Operating virtually through Wednesday
• Rust College: Operating virtually
• University of Mississippi: Closed though Sunday

Higher education reporter Candice Wilder contributed to this report.

As with tens of thousands of fellow Mississippians since a winter storm struck during the weekend, the Hood family of Oxford was coping with the loss of electricity as best they could early Monday in their Northpointe neighborhood home about 2 miles north of Square.

Tucker and Leanna Hood, husband and wife and both lawyers, and their two young daughters were all bundled up and “camping in” around the gas fire logs in the living room. Mary Ann Hood, Tucker’s mom who was visiting from Brandon, was also sleeping under several blankets. They were all fairly cozy, until the home’s carbon monoxide alarm, which had converted from electric power to battery-operated, went off at 5:30 a.m.

“It woke me up, and I immediately turned off the gas logs,” Tucker Hood said.

The temperature was 7 degrees outside and it was going to get really cold, really fast inside the house. The Hoods’ oldest daughter, Reynolds, is 2. The youngest, Ida Orley, turned 5 months old Monday. The roads were covered in ice and snow.

What to do?

“We decided to go for the cars,” Tucker said. “Seemed like the best option.”

One problem: The car doors and locks were frozen. Using heated water from a gas stove, the Hoods were able to get in the family van and crank it up, along with Mary Ann Hood’s small SUV.

In the vehicles, they had all they needed, except space.

Mary Ann Hood posted on Facebook: ”I am sitting on my lovely heated seat and the warm air is blasting away. I am charging my phone while listening to channel 28 on SirrusXM or sometimes to my favorite playlist… I have three excellent books to choose from and just had a delicious breakfast of belVita Crunchy biscuits. I have on my best Patagonia long underwear, flannel PJ’s, puffy jacket and two pair of Ugg socks in my cozy Ugg boots (thanks to whoever gave me these wonderful socks for Christmas). …Thank goodness, I have a full tank of gas.”

Tucker, LeAnna and the kids were parked a few feet away in the family van. Reynolds, the 2-year-old, was watching a movie in the backseat.

And that’s where they spent the next five hours until a family friend arrived with a generator to use in the house. File this all under: All’s well that ends well.

Said Tucker Hood, “I’m just glad that carbon monoxide alarm worked.”

Delta State’s nationally renowned NCAA Division II baseball team was supposed to open the 2026 season Friday against Harding (Arkansas) University in Cleveland. 

That won’t happen. Boo Ferriss Field at Harvey Stadium on the DSU campus in Cleveland is covered in ice and snow. At noon Monday, the temperature was 21 degrees. The wind chill was 7. The weekend forecast is for more freezing temperatures. The DSU Statesmen are sometimes called the Fighting Okra, but they would be more like Eskimos if they played this weekend.

“We’ll play it by ear, but it doesn’t look good, “ Delta State coach Rodney Batts said Monday. 

Repairs will have to made to the backstop at Harvey Stadium before any baseball is played.

“The ice on the netting is so heavy with ice, it tore away from the poles,” said Delta State athletic director Mike Kinnison, a former DSU baseball All America and Hall of Fame coach. “In fact, it is so heavy that it bent some of the poles that were holding it up. That will all have to be repaired.”

The good news: Delta State, which must replace 25 seniors who graduated from last year’s team, can continue pre-season workouts in the Bryce Griffis Indoor Practice Facility adjacent to Harvey Stadium.

The Griffis facility was the brainchild of the late Boo Ferriss. For decades, the DSU baseball program was plagued by rainouts – and sometimes early season “ice-outs.” Practice time often was hard to come by.

“Baseball is a game of repetition,” Kinnison said. “You have to do it every day: hitting, pitching, ground balls, double play turns, relay throws, everything. We were missing too much.”

Ferriss spearheaded the drive to raise the money for the indoor facility and secured the lead gift from the late Bryce Griffis, a Starkville timber man and former Delta State baseball and football player.

The 10,400-square-foot facility was completed in December 2000, opened in 2001, and is used by DSU’s baseball, softball, soccer and football teams. In 2004, Kinnison’s Statesmen won a national championship.

Says Batts, whose team worked out indoors Monday, “I don’t know what in the world we would do without it.”

Hospitals and health facilities in Mississippi are continuing to provide critical care to patients in the wake of a treacherous winter storm, even as they endure power outages, impassable roads and no running water. 

Scott Simmons, Mississippi Emergency Management Authority’s external affairs director, said his agency is working to bring 30 generators to North Mississippi hospitals, long-term care facilities, nursing homes and warming centers. He said multiple locations had generators that failed over the weekend, and only some had come back online by Monday morning.

Small, rural facilities in northern Mississippi are bearing the brunt of the storm’s impact.

Tippah County Hospital, a 25-bed facility in Ripley, is operating at full capacity with reduced staff and no running water, CEO Patrick Chapman told Mississippi Today. Staff at the hospital delivered a baby Saturday for the first time in years while attending to a heart attack patient. Staff joined forces and went back and forth between two rooms, offering care to patients facing life and death in “a heartwarming moment,” Chapman said. 

“It shows you how people can take the worst circumstances and bring out the best,” he said.

But staff confronted grim realities outside the hospital brought on by the weekend’s wintry conditions. Monday afternoon, Chapman picked up a nurse for her evening shift. When Chapman arrived, the nurse was sitting in her car trying to stay warm because her house had no heat, he said. 

In Winona, Tyler Holmes Memorial Hospital is facing many similar trials. The facility has running water, but is operating on a generator while staff members work overtime, said CEO Cori Bailey. 

Staff held a disaster team meeting Tuesday to make sure the hospital had adequate food, water and beds for staff to shelter in place as long as needed. Bailey said she’s heard that could be up to two weeks. 

“One of my directors rearranged her office so that she could bring something to sleep in and be here for the duration,” Bailey said. 

The hospital has seen an uptick in patients who lost power and had to be admitted to continue life-sustaining treatments. 

“They may not be sick enough that they need to be in the hospital, but they’ve got to have electricity to run their (oxygen) concentrators,” said Bailey.

Starting Tuesday, the hospital will start cancelling appointments. 

“It hurts my heart so bad because these patients need to come in, but also, they may not be able to get here,” Bailey said. 

Greg Flynn, spokesperson for the Mississippi State Department of Health, said there were several nursing homes and long-term care facilities that reported being without power and having difficulties operating generators Sunday, all of which were working with local emergency management authorities to restore power. He said he did not know how many facilities were impacted. 

Cornerstone Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, a nursing home in Corinth, has been using a generator all weekend, and has a maintenance man staying overnight to ensure all the rooms are well heated. Everyone there is pitching in additional duties, said Monica Jackson, the facility’s human resources officer, who was on phone duty Monday. 

“We are working on little to no staff,” Jackson said. “Our administrator tried to go and pick up a few people that he could. We’ve got a few people who have been here since this all started Friday night – with no relief. They’ve just been taking naps.”

In the counties surrounding Oxford, community mental health workers for Communicare have been stuck at facilities since Friday because other staff members aren’t able to navigate roads — blocked by trees and downed power lines — to relieve them. Executive Director Melody Madaris told Mississippi Today in a text message she does not know how long the on-site employees will have to continue working.

Madaris said she expects most Communicare services will be closed all week, but its crisis intervention team will be available. 

Wendy Bailey, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, wrote in an email the community mental health center that serves counties in the state’s northeast corner is closed and without power. 

Getting patients to timely care has become a harrowing experience in many parts of the state, including the Mississippi Delta. Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s emergency room remained open through the storm, though the hospital’s clinics, outpatient rehabilitation center and retail pharmacy were closed Monday. The hospital provided accommodations for in-house staff since Friday, said spokesperson Christine Hemphill.

The hospital’s helipad was cleared Monday morning, allowing two patients to be transferred to a higher level of care, Hemphill said. Three additional patients are awaiting transfer.

Pafford Medical Services, one of the largest ambulance providers in the state and the company that provides medical helicopter services to Greenwood Leflore Hospital, began transporting critically ill or injured patients by air from around the state to hospitals in Jackson and Memphis from select facilities late Sunday after landing pads were cleared of ice. 

Unusually thick ice on helipads and continuous precipitation kept air ambulance services grounded in many areas over the weekend, said Clay Hobbs, chief operating officer of Pafford Medical Services.

By midday Monday, most of the state’s hospital helipads were back in service, he said. The company is working to keep as many aircrafts in the air as possible to transport patients to hospitals that can meet their care needs. The company’s emergency operations center, which opened on Friday, triages air and ground transports to ensure that the patients with the greatest needs and who can be transferred safely are transported first.

“Air Ambulance will be busy for the next two to three days,” Hobbs said. 

Hobbs said the company has seen an increased number of 911 calls for traffic accidents and other medical issues since the storm hit. 

Ambulance providers across the state are working to attend to the health needs of patients, particularly those in areas without power who are receiving oxygen or use medical devices that require electricity. 

“Ambulance providers are the first line of defense for those patients,” he said. 

Pafford ambulances are also working to transport patients to Jackson or Memphis for higher levels of care than local hospitals can provide. Operations are fairly normal, Hobbs said, but emergency providers are still encountering some obstacles. 

One ambulance transporting a patient was stranded on the interstate for several hours this morning after an 18-wheeler blocked traffic and made the road impassable, he said. The patient survived. 

All Baptist Memorial hospitals in the state are open and have power, said spokesperson Kimberly Alexander. However, clinics in north Mississippi were closed Monday, Alexander said, and the system’s Oxford hospital was not offering elective or outpatient surgeries and procedures. They will re-assess on a day-to-day basis, she said. 

All eight North Mississippi Health Services hospital locations are open, said David Wilson, chief operating officer for North Mississippi Health Services and president for North Mississippi Medical Center-Tupelo in a statement. Some clinics and outpatient services are closed today or opening later in the day, and most clinics are expected to return to normal operations Tuesday. 

Large hospitals in Jackson say they are operating as usual and are prepared to accept transfers from smaller hospitals. 

The University of Mississippi Medical Center’s main campus in Jackson, the state’s largest hospital, is operating normally, said spokesperson Patrice Guilfoyle. UMMC Holmes County is operating on a generator, and UMMC clinics north of Lexington are closed Monday. 

St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson is currently experiencing typical transfer volumes, but anticipates an increase as road and travel conditions improve, spokesperson Meredith Bailess said in an email. 

“We remain prepared to support the needs of these impacted areas,” Bailess said.

Wendy Bailey, the mental health department executive director, said some of the generators at North Mississippi Regional Center’s community homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which her agency runs, have failed. But at least one of the generators was up and running again by Monday morning. 

The Department’s legislative budget request for the upcoming fiscal year requests more funding to replace the backup power sources at the regional center and North Mississippi State Hospital. After the agency’s board meeting in December, Wendy Bailey said the state hospital’s generator will not pass its upcoming review if it is not replaced. 

“Backup generators are essential to support operations during a power outage,” she said in her Tuesday email. “These programs are providing 24/7 services to some of Mississippi’s most vulnerable residents.”

Mississippi Today is welcoming two new reporters to its team. Madeline Nguyen will join as an investigative reporter, and Aaron Lampley is the newest reporter on Mississippi Today’s Jackson desk.

Nguyen, who just graduated with a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University, has joined Mississippi Today for a year-long fellowship from the Roy Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at ASU.

“It’s an honor to join Mississippi Today’s investigative team, whose track record of accountability exemplifies the core mission of local investigative journalism: reporting that makes the community we live in a better place,” Nguyen said. “I’m eager to build on the team’s legacy of highlighting inequities in a criminal justice system where justice is too often absent.”

Lampley, a recent broadcast and digital journalism graduate of Mississippi State University, previously interned with Mississippi Today as a video producer during the summer of 2025. He will contribute to the Jackson team as a reporter with an eye towards bringing stories to life through video.

“Growing up in Mississippi, I saw so many different voices and stories go unheard. I’m so grateful to be a part of Mississippi Today, a team whose mission helps to serve those very individuals,” Lampley said. “Shedding light on the untold stories of Mississippi and its many amazing communities, while also providing them with information they might not otherwise have access to, plays a vital role in helping this state grow and succeed. I’m excited to help carry that mission forward.”

Nguyen, who also has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications and political science, will work with the nonprofit news organization’s investigative team headed by veteran journalist Jerry Mitchell as well as assist the newsroom as a whole. 

While at Arizona State, Nguyen led a local, long-form investigation for Arizona PBS uncovering key footage that Phoenix police edits out of body-camera videos released to the public. She engineered a custom Excel database tracking the department’s video editing in nearly 100 use-of-force cases by collecting data on hours of footage and filing public records requests for police reports.

Nguyen previously pioneered a new data-focused beat while working as a cost-of-living intern reporter at the Times of San Diego and was a data and research contributor for The Guardian, Consumer Reports and the Food & Environment Network. She also served as a health disparities congressional correspondent for Arizona PBS-Cronkite News’ Washington bureau.  

“We are thrilled to have Madeline Nguyen join our investigative team,” said Debbie Skipper, justice editor at Mississippi Today. “Her skills and innovative approaches will enhance our abilities to further our mission of informing the public and holding decision makers accountable.”

A Noxapater native, Lampley doesn’t hesitate to tackle sensitive subjects, such as a short documentary he directed, filmed and edited while in school that told the stories of two trans Starkville-area residents navigating the fears and fallout of Trump-era policies. He will cover news and human-interest stories in the capital city. 

“I’m delighted to have Aaron back after working with him last summer on a video about one of the city’s biggest news stories of the year, the human impacts of water shutoffs at apartment complexes,” said Jackson Editor Anna Wolfe. “I appreciated his sensitivity when visiting with residents, and I’m eager to see the audience he reaches with this medium.”