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Some power providers say it may be weeks, not days, before electricity is restored to parts of Mississippi battered by the weekend’s deadly winter storm – an event that could turn out to be the state’s most destructive winter weather since a massive ice storm in 1994.

At a Monday afternoon press conference, Gov. Tate Reeves announced he is deploying the Mississippi National Guard to help with logistics and getting emergency supplies to parts of the state hardest hit. Maj. Gen. Bobby Ginn, adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard, said 500 guardsmen are being mobilized and he expects them to be fully operational, based at Camp McCain near Grenada, by Wednesday morning. 

Reeves said that over 20% of the homes across the country without power are in Mississippi. The state has received 30 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to meet critical needs, such as at hospitals and nursing homes. Mississippi requested 30 more generators that will arrive by Tuesday, and the state can request an additional supply if needed, Reeves said.

FEMA officials are in the state to help distribute water, meals, blankets and other supplies after President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for Mississippi on Saturday.

The governor said there are many challenges to relief efforts due to the icy weather and low temperatures, with officials from the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Mississippi Emergency Management Agency highlighting the unique difficulties of ice storms. 

Frigid temperatures, icy roads and downed trees have impeded restoration efforts, especially in rural areas of the state. Two deaths – one each in Hinds County and Tishomingo County – and two injuries from the storm have been reported in the state.

Officials with Entergy Mississippi, the state’s largest electric utility, on Monday afternoon announced power restoration estimates for different parts of its service area: Wednesday night for Natchez, Clinton, Madison, Vicksburg and Senatobia; Friday night for Cleveland, Indianola, Greenville and Lexington; and Sunday night for Grenada, which the company said was one of the hardest hit places.

About 153,000 customers were without power across 47 of the 82 counties at midday Monday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said.

Entergy

Entergy Mississippi serves over 400,000 customers in 45 counties. The company said Monday that the storm had impacted 55,000 of its customers and it had deployed over 2,700 workers.

As of Monday, the company had assessed just under half of its service area for damages. Those numbers included 234 broken poles, 50 miles of wires down, and 35 damaged transformers.

In a video press release, Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO of Entergy Mississippi, reminded people to stay away from downed power lines and to report any downed lines to 1-800-968-8243 or on www.entergy.com. He also advised customers with outages to unplug all appliances to prevent surges when power is restored.

Fisackerly added that continued freezing temperatures could cause more outages.

During a press conference with Entergy, Central District Public Service Commissioner De’Keither Stamps called on residents and churches that get heat through natural gas to offer shelter to neighbors staying in cold homes. He also advised Mississippians to keep their thermostats at or below 70 degrees to prevent overburdening the power grid.

Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi 

Twelve of the Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi’s 26 operations have requested restoration assistance with additional crews coming from out of state. According to a Monday press release, travel is dangerous in parts of the state that have been hardest hit and it is difficult to say when everything will be back on.

Tippah, Alcorn, Benton and Union counties 

The Tippah Electric Power Association, which serves 13,927 customers in Tippah, Alcorn, Benton, and Union counties in Mississippi as well as Hardeman County in Tennessee, reported Monday that all but six of its customers had lost power. The provider said Sunday it is looking at “weeks instead of days to restore power” to everyone.

The utility is one of several in north Mississippi that buys power from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“Tippah EPA still does not have feed to 5 of our substations,” the utility wrote on its Facebook page. On Sunday, the provider wrote that its power distribution system had “suffered catastrophic damage.”

“TVA and local power company crews are working around the clock to restore service as safely and quickly as possible,” TVA spokesperson Julia Wise told Mississippi Today on Monday. “We are making progress despite difficult conditions for workers, including fallen trees, deep snow, icy roads and frigid temperatures. Crews are on the ground and in the air assessing storm damage and repairing transmission lines.”

TVA serves 346,000 customers in northeastern Mississippi, through local public utilities and cooperatives.

Officials in Ripley, the county seat of Tippah County, reported both gas and water outages in addition to the power troubles. “Most areas” of Ripley dealt with water issues after an outage at a pump station, city officials wrote on social media. 

On Sunday, the city also reported a “major gas line break” between Ripley and Blue Mountain that left “many residents” without gas. Officials Monday said repairs were still in progress.

Tishomingo County Electric Power Association

“It’s a war zone out here,” said Cody Durham, CEO of Tishomingo County Electric Power Association. Around 80% of Tishomingo Electric’s customers are without power. 

Durham said restoring power to the county’s electric water pumps is the first priority. He hopes water would be restored by Monday night. 

“We’re doing the best we can to work through these tough conditions,” Durham said. Because of cold and icy conditions, he said it’s impossible to know the exact extent of the damage. He requested additional crews to help clear trees and repair lines. He urged people to check for warming shelters that are being set up in the county and go there if the roads are passable.

Water and generator system failures

Local newsrooms report boil-water notices for Quitman County, Panola County and Holly Springs. The Mississippi State Department of Health’s Bureau of Public Water Supply is working with local water systems to clear the boil advisories, according to department spokesperson Greg Flynn. 

He said no contamination has been reported, but water systems need to check their quality whenever a power outage causes a drop in water pressure. Because there may be no power to boil water in some places, Flynn said people might need to use bottled water.

County emergency management contacts in Quitman County, Panola County and Marshall County did not immediately respond to Mississippi Today’s calls Monday. Scott Simmons, Mississippi Emergency Management Authority’s external affairs director, said MEMA is working with local governments and the state Department of Transportation to take 64,000 bottles of water to north Mississippi communities that lack access to fresh tap water. 

“It’s going to be a challenge, but that’s the challenge we’re tackling right now,” Simmons said.

David Kenney, a spokesperson for the state transportation department, said the agency was continuing to clear fallen trees from highways and interstates. 

Sharkey County

Officials in Sharkey County said most of the nearly 4,000 residents don’t have power. The city of Rolling Fork was also under a boil water notice on Monday due to low water pressure some areas. Natalie Perkins, deputy director of Sharkey County Emergency Management, said it could take until Tuesday morning for most people to have water restored. 

Crews are working to fix downed power lines but some roads are still impassable in rural parts of the county due to downed power poles and trees. 

“Everybody’s in the same situation in the whole county and all of the utilities and infrastructure officials are working as fast as they can,” Perkins said, adding that county residents should be prepared for it to take a week for power to be fully restored.

Marshall County

In Marshall County, which for years has dealt with fragile infrastructure owned by the Holly Springs Utility Department, District 1 Supervisor Goston Glover said crews were slowly restoring power in the area as of Monday morning. 

“It’s terrible,” said Glover, while adding that the response has been a “hell of a lot better than” after previous storms. “We had a tremendous amount of ice that came through here.”

Holly Springs officials did not respond to calls from Mississippi Today. Mayor Charles Terry wrote on the city’s Facebook page on Monday, “I want to assure you that we are doing our due diligence to restore your service as quickly as possible. We have contract crews working alongside our regular staff. Additional crews are scheduled to come in tomorrow.”

Update, 1/26/2026: This story has been updated with information from Gov. Tate Reeves and details about Sharkey County and Marshall County.

Political activist Angela Davis will appear at Tougaloo College on Wednesday to speak as part of a new lecture series. The event is not expected to be impacted by the recent winter storm.

The event will be at Woolworth Chapel starting at 5 p.m., with doors opening at 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public. An RSVP is not required to enter and does not guarantee seating. There will also be a livestream. 

Humanitarian organization Mississippi for a Just World partnered with Tougaloo College and Black With No Chaser to create the Voices for a Just World Lecture series.

“One of our main focuses is on educating community, and we want to bring dynamic speakers who have radical imaginations that are rooted in the fight for human rights,” said Candace Abdul-Tawwab, MSJW’s co-founder and executive director.

C.J. Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of Black With No Chaser, said, “It’s very rare that you would get the opportunity to do this. I think it’s important that we seize the moment while we can to connect with a revolutionary person and icon like Professor Angela Davis.”

Abdul-Tawwab said that partnering with Tougaloo College made sense because of the institution’s legacy as a hub for civil rights activists. Several people who work at Black With No Chaser are Tougaloo alumni.

In the 1960s and 70s, Davis was a prominent activist and member of the Communist Party of the United States of America and associated with the Black Panther Party. She previously spoke at Tougaloo College in 2015. Davis, a Birmingham native, was previously a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and vice presidential nominee. She is also a critic of the United States’ prison system.

The focus of the 2026 Mississippi legislative session so far has been the gulf between Republican House and Senate leaders over school choice, or, more pointedly, the House proposal to spend millions of tax dollars on private schooling.

Senate leaders vow opposition to the omnibus House Bill 2 because of this facet. But House Bill 2 is a kitchen-sink measure, with many other education proposals thrown in. And, it would appear, the Senate leadership is open to many of these. Its education panel passed a slew of them in separate bills on to the full Senate last week, and several more have been filed. Those passed include measures to expand the state’s successful literacy into higher grades and create a similar math program and to require financial literacy curriculum in order to graduate high schools. Both chambers appear onboard with allowing public school students to switch schools or districts more easily. And other bills pending before the Senate committee include promoting prayer in school and allowing homeschooled children to play in public school sports, mirrors of House legislation in HB 2.

But will the standoff over private-school vouchers prevent agreement on other measures? A full-court political press is on. Local governments and school officials continue to lobby against HB2, while some apparently well-funded and organized proponents are sending out robo-texts to constituents in home districts of Republican lawmakers who oppose the measure. Even the White House has been applying pressure on Mississippi Republicans for passage of the voucher measure.

Otherwise, lawmakers face a busy couple of weeks, with key deadlines approaching. Importantly, a first major “killing deadline,” one that will likely weed out hundreds of bills, is Feb. 3, the deadline for committees to pass or kill bills from their own chamber.

Other major debates to watch this session are:

• Ballot initiative. This has become a perennial issue since the state Supreme Court nullified this right for Mississippi voters in 2021. Lawmakers can’t seem to get together on the particulars, although many proclaim they want to restore voters’ ability to sidestep the Legislature and put measures to a statewide vote. The 2027 state elections loom, and lawmakers face pressure to resolve this before reelection time.

• Online sports betting. This is a major House initiative, and its leaders have tried to sweeten the pot for a reluctant Senate, proposing to earmark tax revenue from mobile gambling to shore up the state’s government employee retirement system.

• Campaign-finance reform. Another perennial issue facing more urgency with the 2027 elections looming, the state’s lax, confusing, conflicting and often unenforced campaign-finance laws leave our elections open to an unchecked flow of dark money and special interest influence. But it appears two main players in potential reform, the secretary of state and attorney general, are getting on the same page.

Quote of the Week

“I do have a little problem, Mr. House Speaker. In fact, I’ve got three problems … I’ve got a problem with my woman, with my girlfriend and with my wife …” — famed blues musician Bobby Rush, who gave an impromptu singing and harmonica performance on the House floor on Tuesday.

In Brief

Prison health reform proposed

A slate of bills from House Corrections Chair Becky Currie, a Republican from Brookhaven, would revamp the delivery of health care in state prisons.

The proposals come after Mississippi Today’s “Behind Bars, Beyond Care” series, which has documented the alleged routine denial of health care in state prisons and deadly outcomes.

Currie’s bills would establish a corrections ombudsman to investigate health care complaints, establish hepatitis C and HIV treatment programs, provide kiosks for prisoners to request medical attention and require correctional officers to wear body cameras. But most of the bills have been double-referred, meaning they would have to pass through two committees. That’s sometimes a sign that a bill doesn’t have the support of a chamber’s leadership. – Michael Goldberg

Bill would provide benefits for gig workers

A growing number of Americans are working as independent contractors and “gig” workers.

They often do not receive employer-provided benefits such as health care and retirement.

House Bill 1072, the “Voluntary Portable Benefit Plan,” aims to help these workers access benefits. Authored by Rep. Lee Yancey, a Republican from Brandon, the bill would create a separate type of benefit that follows workers across jobs. A hiring firm could make tax-deductible contributions to the account and it would not be counted as taxable income for the worker. Similar portable-benefit accounts have been created in other states, such as Alabama and Tennessee. – Katherine Lin

Gov. Reeves to deliver State of the State address

Gov. Tate Reeves will deliver his State of the State Address to a joint session of the Mississippi Legislature on Tuesday.

The address, which will be aired live by Mississippi Public Broadcasting, will be delivered at 5 p.m. in the second-floor rotunda at the state Capitol. Read a transcript of Reeves’ 2025 address here. – Mississippi Today

DeSoto board wants power to remove member

HERNANDO — Some DeSoto County School Board members want a legal process by which an elected school board member could be ousted for concerns including malfeasance and abuse of power. They passed a resolution in November formally asking lawmakers to consider granting that authority in the current legislative session.

Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, has filed Senate Bill 2068, which would allow a school district’s local governing authority, by majority vote, to remove a school board member for breach of public trust, neglect of duty and abuse of authority. The school board would first have to vote on a recommendation.

Rep. Kimberly Remak, a Republican from Olive Branch, is the primary author of House Bill 573, the House mirror of Blackwell’s bill.  – Leonardo Bevilacqua

Earlier teacher procurement cards proposed

The Senate Education Committee on Thursday passed a bill that would distribute procurement cards, which teachers use to pay for classroom supplies, in July instead of August.

A report from the state Auditor’s office last summer showed that the card is activated too late to be useful, and that many teachers are forced to spend their own money on supplies.

The cards provide every teacher $748.

Sen. Scott DeLano, a Republican from Biloxi, said the new date would be tight, given that the state’s fiscal year starts in July. But he said the change is necessary because school districts are starting earlier and earlier. – Devna Bose

Bill would prohibit secret government settlements

Sen. Angela Hill, a Republican from Picayune, filed a bill that would prohibit government bodies from entering into private settlements and ban judges from sealing settlements, especially if they involve tax money. 

Hill told Mississippi Today that the legislation is about promoting transparency and allowing the public to know if taxpayer dollars are paying settlements. She said government bodies can redact the identities of people involved, if necessary. 

“We’re not talking about making private identities public — this is talking about tax dollars,” Hill said.  – Taylor Vance

Truancy officers would see pay raise

A bill pending before the Senate would give truancy officers a significant pay increase.

School attendance officers, under current law, are paid at least $24,000 a year. The new bill would raise the minimum by $10,000.

The bill also expands the responsibilities of attendance officers to dropout prevention and establishes a more robust framework to combat absenteeism, an issue that Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has said is one of his top priorities.

Chronic absenteeism, or missing at least 10% of a school year, has more than doubled in Mississippi since 2018. – Devna Bose

Boyd wants local governments to livestream

The Senate Government Structure Committee last week advanced a bill that would require all government bodies in the state to livestream meetings and post agendas on their website. 

Sen. Nicole Boyd, a Republican from Oxford, filed the legislation and told Mississippi Today that requiring public bodies to do this would not cost them a significant amount of money and should not be a significant burden on them because several agencies and local governments already do this. 

“It’s important for everyday citizens to find out what’s going on in our local boards and commissions,” Boyd said. – Taylor Vance

By the Numbers

$100 million

Amount the University of Mississippi Medical Center is asking the Legislature to provide for what hospital officials hope will become a “gold standard” cancer center. UMMC has already raised $90 million of the estimated $250 million total cost.

More Legislative Coverage

Gov. Reeves says Mississippi will participate in federal school-choice tax credits

The federal tax-credit program, created by President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” allows Mississippians to contribute up to $1,700 to an organization that awards scholarships to private-school students, starting in federal tax year 2027. Donors will be given a break on their taxes equal to the amount they contribute. Read the story.

State lawmakers push for protections as Supreme Court considers dismantling Voting Rights Act

As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a case that could further weaken the federal Voting Rights Act, some Mississippi lawmakers are moving to write their own version. Read the story.

Mississippi bills would put repeat domestic abusers on a public registry

A handful of bills pending in the Mississippi Legislature propose creating a public online system displaying information about people convicted of two or more domestic violence offenses, including misdemeanors and felonies. Read the story.

Correction: An earlier version of this story has been corrected to show what legislation the Senate Education Committee has passed on to the full Senate and what measures are pending before the committee.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Texas supplied the most new residents of any U.S. state for Mississippi and eight other states, despite having the biggest population growth this decade, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Texas was the top source of new residents for Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma, according to the 2024 state-to-state migration flows, which track where someone lived in the previous year and where they currently live. The Census Bureau released the numbers last week.

With 31 million residents, Texas ranks second in population among U.S. states. Between 2020 and 2024, Texas gained 2.1 million people.

“The obvious and primary answer is size,” said Dudley Poston, professor emeritus of sociology at Texas A&M University. “There’s got to be more people leaving Texas than leaving other states because of the population size of Texas.”

Thousands of Mississippians are also migrating to Texas. Roughly 5,500 people moved from Hinds County, Mississippi, to the Lone Star State from 2017 to 2022, according to Internal Revenue Service data analyzed by researcher Jake McGraw at Rethink Mississippi. McGraw, who conducted the analysis for Mississippi Today, said Dallas and Houston were the top destinations for the relocating Mississippians.

Other large producers of residents who moved to other states included the nation’s other most populous states: California, Florida and New York.

California, the most populous U.S. state with 39 million residents, supplied the most new residents to the western states of Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington. But it also was the top supplier of domestic residents to Tennessee, home to Nashville, which has established a pipeline to Southern California’s entertainment industry.

Florida, the third most populous U.S. state with 23 million residents, dominated the number of new residents in the southeast states of Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina but also Ohio. Florida has gained 1.8 million residents this decade, the second most of any state.

Although the Sunshine State’s size played a primary role, other factors may be involved too, such as Florida’s escalating real estate and homeowners’ insurance prices and the more plentiful job opportunities for recent college graduates in cities like Atlanta and Charlotte, according to Richard Doty, a research demographer at the University of Florida.

“It is no longer as affordable a relocation/ retirement option as it once was,” Doty said in an email.

New York was the top source of new residents in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts and New Jersey, while Illinois provided the most new residents for Midwestern neighbors Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.

“The states with the largest out-migration numbers — California, Florida, Texas, and New York — are also the states with the largest populations. That’s not a coincidence,” said Helen You, interim director of the Texas Demographic Center. “Large populations naturally generate large volumes of both in-and-out migrants.”

Some migration patterns were no real surprises, such as former Massachusetts residents being the biggest source of new Mainers, New Hampshirites, Rhode Islanders and Vermonters. Former Wisconsinites made up the largest number of new Minnesotans, and former North Carolinians were the biggest source of new South Carolina residents.

In most states in 2024, before the immigration crackdown of the second Trump administration, people arriving from a foreign country were the top source of new residents. Among the exceptions, where international migration wasn’t large compared to people moving from individual U.S. states, were Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The winter storm that contributed to downed power lines, gnarled trees and hazardous roadways across the state is also spurring school closures. 

Almost half of the state’s public school districts had announced plans to close or operate virtually on Monday, as of 6 p.m. Sunday, according to data from the Mississippi Department of Education and official posts. In some areas, such as Oxford and Lafayette County, schools will close for longer.

Many colleges and universities have announced plans to operate virtually.

The following list of weather-related closings announced for Monday is not exhaustive. Email information about school closings to mbrown@mississippitoday.org.

K-12 schools (public and private)

• Ambition Prep
• Benton County School District: Closed through Tuesday
• Brookhaven School District
• Canton Public School District
• Chickasaw County School District
• Claiborne County School District
• Clarksdale Municipal School District
• Cleveland School District
• Clinton Public School District
• Coahoma County School District: Closed through Tuesday; virtual learning
• Copiah County School District
• DeSoto County Schools
• East Tallahatchie School District
• Forest Municipal School District
• Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District
• Greenville Public School District: Closed through Tuesday
• Hinds County School District
• Hollandale School District
• Holmes County Consolidated School District
• Humphreys County School District
• Jackson Academy
• Jackson Preparatory School
• Jackson Public Schools
• Kosciusko School District
• Lafayette County School District: Closed all week
• Laurel School District
• Lawrence County School District
• Leake County School District
• Lee County School District
• Leland School District
• Lincoln County School District
• Lowndes County School District
• Madison County Schools
• Magnolia Speech School
• McComb School District
• MIssissippi Schools for Deaf and the Blind
• Natchez-Adams School District
• New Albany School District: Closed through Tuesday
• North Panola School District
• North Pike School District
• Okolona Separate School District: Closed through Tuesday
• Oxford School District: Closed all week
• Pearl Public School District
• Philadelphia Public School District
• Quitman County School District: Closed through Tuesday
• Rankin County School District
• RePublic Charter Schools
• Scott County School District
• Senatobia School District: Closed through Wednesday
• Simpson County School District
• Smith County School District
• South Panola School District 
• South Pike School District
• SR1 College Preparatory & STEM Academy
• Sunflower County Consolidated School District: Closed through Tuesday
• Tishomingo County School District: Closed through Tuesday
• Tunica County School District: Closed through Tuesday
• Tupelo Public School District
• Vicksburg-Warren School District: A decision about a Tuesday closure will be made by 2 p.m. Monday.
• Walthall County School District
• Wayne County School District
• West Jasper School District
• Western Line School District
• West Tallahatchie School District
• Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District: Operating virtually
• Yazoo City Municipal School District 
• Yazoo County School District

Colleges and universities (public and private)

• Alcorn State University: Operating virtually; opens at noon on Tuesday
• Coahoma County Community College
• Copiah–Lincoln Community College
• Delta State University: Closed through Tuesday
• East Central Community College: Operating virtually
• Hinds Community College: Operating virtually
• Itawamba Community College
• Jackson State University: Operating virtually 
• Jones College: Operating virtually
• Meridian Community College: Operating virtually
• Millsaps College: Operating virtually
• Mississippi College: Operating virtually
• Mississippi Delta Community College: Closed through Tuesday
• Mississippi State University: Operating virtually
• Mississippi University for Women
• Mississippi Valley State University: Operating virtually at instructors’ discretion
• Northeast Mississippi Community College: Closed through Tuesday
• Northwest Mississippi Community College: Operating virtually
• Rust College: Operating virtually
• Southeastern Baptist College: A decision about a Tuesday closure will be made by 5 p.m. Monday.
• Southwest Mississippi Community College: Operating virtually
• Tougaloo College: Operating virtually
• University of Mississippi: Closed though Tuesday

The winter storm that pushed through the state Saturday and Sunday temporarily knocked out power at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman and Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood, even as temperatures plunged below freezing.

“At Parchman, we had a limb fall on a line,” Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain told Mississippi Today on Sunday afternoon. “The power is coming back on.”

He said during the afternoon that Entergy workers spent about three hours fixing the problem, but during another call later in the day, Cain said the crew had continued its work. That brought the work to about six hours and delayed the full restoration of power beyond what Cain had originally said.

Parchman is in rural Sunflower County near Tutwiler and has about 1,900 inmates. Delta Correctional is in Greenwood and houses about 300 women. Both are in areas that received snow and ice.

Generators were supplying power Sunday at Delta Correctional, Cain said. “The only place we’ve had a problem is at Parchman.”

“I just had a mama tell me that the inmates were banging on the wall all night, that they were cold and hungry,” Cain said. “All that’s bullshit.”

Inmates had sack lunches Sunday, Cain said, “and we should be able to cook supper. We have water and everything.”

House Corrections Committee Chairwoman Becky Currie said Sunday that she asked prison officials if they had checked generators at Parchman before the ice storm.

“They said no,” Currie said. “I’m raising hell, but it is an emergency. This is another major mistake for the Department of Corrections.”

Currie told Mississippi Today that she spoke to a staff member at Delta Correctional on Sunday afternoon who told her the generator was working but was only keeping some lights on. It was not sufficiently heating the building, the staff member told her.

“I can’t imagine being in a tin can with no heat,” Currie said. “We all plan for storms in Mississippi. That’s why there is not a loaf of bread on the shelf (in the grocery store). They are responsible for thousands of lives. There are hospice patients, dialysis patients. And they can’t make sure the generators are going to work in time of need?”

Temperatures at Parchman fell to 19 degrees Sunday.

An inmate in Parchman’s Unit 29, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said he awoke at 1 a.m. Sunday to the lights flickering on and off. He said that at 3 a.m., a fire was set down the hall from his cell. He said inmates were trying to get the attention of correctional officers after the power went out, and the temperature inside the block got “too damn cold.”

The only light visible was coming through the windows, he said. “The officers aren’t doing anything, they’re not checking to see if inmates are cold or anything.”

Inmates were hollering for warmer clothes after the temperature dropped, he said. A warden later announced to inmates that “nothing could be done,” he said.

Mississippi Today was able to review photos of both the inmate’s icy window and the fire that was set in his block. Dark cells and hallways can be seen in an additional photograph obtained. Parchman’s fields are blanketed with white snow in another.

At around noon Sunday, the inmate said he was given a cold breakfast. It’s unclear, he said, when the next meal could be served. Security checks that usually happen every half hour had ceased since early Sunday morning, he added. Besides breakfast at noon and a nurse making a medication drop at a nearby cell, he said no guard or other person had come by his cell Sunday.

Stephen C. McCraney, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday he received a phone call about three to four days ago that three generators at the Delta Correctional Facility were “iffy.” He said he sent three extra generators to the prison.

Parchman is a new problem, he said. When power went out there, it became a priority, he said.

“Sometimes things break in the middle of the night. Those customers within those facilities, they can’t go home for the weekend, they can’t go to the neighbor’s house and we realize that,” McCraney said of the prisoners in Parchman and Delta Correctional.

Mississippi Today obtained text messages from a Parchman guard, who wrote: “Most of their stuff doesn’t work. What does work is rigged up. They don’t have a maintenance team that actually knows what they are doing.

“And our heaters work well,” the guard wrote. “They just aren’t turned all the way up because we don’t want to burn them up and then be without them all together. They are set at 65 or 68 I can’t remember. So inmates probably still want a blanket to keep comfortable but they definitely are not freezing.”

At a Sunday news conference, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he was “aware” of the prison problems. “I’m confident that we will get that back online via a generator if not already, then very soon,” Reeves said.

Facebook entries by people concerned about prison conditions alleged that Parchman inmates were suffering without heat or food. 

When someone made a joke on Facebook about inmates freezing to death, Drea LaSha responded that they are “still human beings that breathe the same air we do. They are not dead but will be in such conditions and you joke about it … Could be you.”

Terell Harris added, “These are humans and not animals, and let’s be honest, the animals get protected in these conditions. Everyone in prison don’t deserve to be there, and some are actually innocent. Either way, these are humans, and we all have family that has been to prison.”

Update, 1/25/2026: This story has been updated to show an Entergy crew worked longer than Commissioner Burl Cain had originally said.

Snow and ice left widespread damage across northern Mississippi as a massive storm moved across large parts of the U.S., creating dangerous travel conditions. Trees split open and dropped heavy branches, and power lines crashed down in some areas.

Though the worst damage was in the northern part of the state, areas as far south as Natchez saw icy conditions.

As much as 12% of Mississippi customers were without electricity at peak outages Sunday, and the hardest-hit areas were in the northern part of the state, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. 

“The situation is expected to get worse before it gets better,” Gov. Tate Reeves said, warning that restoring power could take days. He said 47 of Mississippi’s 82 counties have been affected by the storm.

“We haven’t seen a storm of this magnitude in terms of ice since 1994,” Reeves said. “This magnitude, this large an area in our state, and quite honestly, this much ice, we haven’t seen anything like this for 32 years.”

Reeves said that things could change, but “at this time we do not anticipate the need to call out the (National) Guard” as North Carolina has done to deal with the storm.

About half of Mississippi’s public school districts will be closed Monday. In hard-hit Oxford and Lafayette County, where fallen trees were blocking many roads, officials announced schools will close all week.

Like many other Oxford residents, Lee Ragland said he and his wife, Jana, were without power Sunday. He said some trees and large limbs fell in their yard, but luckily none had hit their house.

“Laid in bed last night listening to transformers blow and trees snapping and falling up and down street,” Lee Ragland said in a text message. “Not a good feeling. Now need to find a chainsaw crew to clear my driveway.”

Holly Springs resident Pat Stubbs said his home lost power Saturday night, and trees were down all around his neighborhood.

“I’ve got gas logs and a gas stove and oven. I’m better off than most,” Stubbs said Sunday. “Looks like it’s gonna be a few days before all this melts.”

In Clarksdale, Shawn Thomas-Erving said Sunday he helped six people who were stuck in the storm Saturday evening, including law enforcement. He said he used a shovel to get tires out of areas thickly blanketed with snow and ice. 

Thomas-Erving said afterward that he was tired, but “I felt like it was my duty.”

He said wintry conditions haven’t been this bad in Clarksdale since the early 2000s. He described the situation Sunday as “unbearable,” with cars still sliding and getting stuck.

Reeves said power outage numbers have been fluctuating and are likely to get worse as temperatures drop overnight and into Monday morning, but that at a peak Sunday about 180,000 customers, about 12% of customers statewide, were out.

Lafayette County, home to Oxford, had about 20,000 customers without electricity at midday Sunday, about 75% of the customers in that county.

Lee County, home to Tupelo, had nearly 13,000 customers without electricity, about 35%.

Tippah Electric Power Association reported that TVA, one of the largest power providers in northeast Mississippi, had “catastrophic damage” to one of its main distribution lines “and because of that, it could be a lengthy time before they are able to get power to every customer,” Reeves said.

Jackson firefighters extinguished flames Saturday night at what was supposed to be a vacant building at Chapel Ridge apartments. The Jackson Fire Department’s chief investigator, Charles Felton, said the building was being used by people “without permanent housing.”

Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill said on social media Sunday that crews were working to clear streets for emergency vehicles. She implored people to remain home and to stay away from downed power lines.

“It looks dire right now, I know, but Oxford’s a community that takes care of each other and comes together when things are most challenging,” Tannehill said. “And this challenge will be no different.”

Coahoma County resident Elicia Martin Mosley said in a written message Sunday that her husband and the county road department worked until 5 p.m. Friday to prepare for the storm as much as possible.

“Unfortunately, you can’t always prepare for what God has in store!” she said. “Why invest in a $200,000 machine for a once every 2-3 years storm! If you wanna get out … gone do what you need to do. If it’s an emergency call for help otherwise watch and pray!”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Saturday night that President Donald Trump has approved an emergency declaration for Mississippi for this winter storm, which allows federal financial assistance for recovery.

Reeves said at a press conference Sunday that Mississippi has requested 30 generators and truckloads of water from federal emergency management officials. He said he does not anticipate needing to call out the National Guard to help with recovery efforts.

1/25/2026: Michael Goldberg, Geoff Pender and Marquita Brown contributed to this story, which has been updated with information from Gov. Tate Reeves and Oxford and Lafayette County schools and comments from a Coahoma County resident.

While Speaker Jason White said he did not pressure House members for their support to garner the narrow 61-59 margin to pass his massive school choice/voucher bill, he at the least had a laser-like understanding of how representatives were going to vote.

Normally, during final passage of a bill in the House, the speaker opens the voting machine and then asks three times “has everyone voted” before closing the machine.

When it came time to vote on the controversial school choice/voucher bill, White opened the machine, which displays on two giant boards on the House floor how members are voting, and asked twice “has everyone voted?” Before he repeated that phrase the third and final time, he took the unusual move of interjecting, “waiting on the gentleman from Grenada,” presumably Republican Kevin Horan.

White then asked, “anyone else?”

Without the momentarily delayed vote of the gentleman from Grenada, the bill would have passed by a one-vote margin instead of the two-vote difference. A tie vote would have been a rejection of the bill.

The bottom line is that White can say he did not apply pressure, as he told reporters after the vote earlier this month, but it was obvious he had a clear understanding of the members’ votes he needed to pass his signature bill for the 2026 session.

Being able to see the members vote on the giant screens can be a powerful influencer. Former House Speaker Billy McCoy used to say he lost only one vote as Education Committee chair. It was on a bill that allowed public schools to offer preschool classes. He said he lost the vote because then-Speaker Tim Ford held the machine open an unusual length of time and a handful of members got cold feet and changed their votes before Ford closed the machines. It is not likely that Ford was intentionally trying to sabotage the bill from McCoy, a fellow Democrat. After all, Ford voted for it.

After the closeness of the recent vote on the school choice/voucher proposal, it became questionable whether the bill would ever leave the House and advance to the Senate, where opposition to sending public funds to private schools seems even more intense.

The Mississippi Constitution gives any member the authority to hold a bill – after a final vote – on a procedural move called a motion to reconsider. The voucher bill was held on a motion, meaning it would require another majority vote to pass and advance to the Senate.

There was at least a little uncertainty on whether the bill could garner another majority. After all, two Republicans did not vote. One of them, Rep. Price Wallace of Mendenhall, said he was absent because of commitments on his family farm, but if he had been there he would have voted no. The other – Rep. Clay Deweese of Oxford – was apparently in the Capitol or close by, but did not vote.

It is not known for certain how he would have voted. But Bradley Roberson, the school superintendent in Deweese’s hometown of Oxford, has been a vocal opponent of spending public funds on private schools.

In the end, though, the motion to reconsider was disposed of on an anticlimactic voice vote and the bill was sent to the Senate.

It was a bit surprising to many that the opponents of the bill – all of the Democrats and 17 of White’s Republicans – did not demand a recorded vote that would have been visible on the two giant boards in the House chamber.

But, perhaps the thought was that at this point it was better to keep the coalition opposing the bill publicly together and not give someone, though White says it would not be him, the opportunity to twist arms to get additional votes for the bill.

The bottom line is if the bill passes the Senate there will be at least one other vote – perhaps multiple votes – on the bill in the House, and members already have taken a tough vote on the measure.

It is likely that if the Senate does kill the bill, White and his allies will attempt to amend another bill and reintroduce the school choice effort. Knowing that, perhaps members thought there was no need to have another tough vote this early in the session. Additional tough votes would come later.

And White says he will not be pressuring members – just reminding the gentleman from Grenada to vote.

A powerful winter storm that’s sweeping across a broad swath of the U.S. blew into Mississippi on Saturday, leaving much of the northern part of the state coated in ice and creating dangerous travel conditions.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation said ice had been reported on roads and bridges in at least 26 of the state’s 82 counties, primarily in northern Mississippi. In a social media post, the agency urged residents in heavily impacted areas to use roadways only for emergencies as crews monitored conditions and treated major routes.

People hunkered down in their homes after stocking up on groceries, and officials warned that electricity outages are likely in some places if ice coats power lines or knocks trees onto the lines.

Local officials echoed warnings about avoiding travel as temperatures dipped below freezing. Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill and the city’s police department reported that several major roadways were icy on Saturday afternoon, with conditions expected to worsen overnight and into the weekend.

“Please stay off the roads if at all possible,” Tannehill said. 

Severe winter weather is a rare occurrence in the Deep South, so it can have outsized impacts because Mississippi has limited winter weather infrastructure. Ice accumulation, even in small amounts, can quickly make roadways impassable and increase the risk of crashes.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency warned that the storm could cause major power outages that could last several days across much of the state. MEMA had also urged residents days in advance to prepare by having enough water and non-perishable food on hand.

A blanket of snow covered much of the Delta. Clarksdale resident Myles Forrest said Saturday that he hasn’t seen so much snow for a couple of years.

“It was 50 degrees the day before and that was our warning that this may stick!” Forrest said in a message to Mississippi Today. “We are warm and inside with a bowl of Gumbo for my son’s Judah Birthday! He said this was his wishes for his Tenth birthday!”

Like many Mississippians, Clarksdale resident Joanne Shedd said she was praying not to lose electricity during the cold snap.

“I have gas in my house so we will stay fed and warm if we do,” she said.

Gov. Tate Reeves has declared a state of emergency and said at a Friday news conference he had been in contact with federal authorities to prepare for the storm.

Churches and social services agencies opened shelters in several parts of Mississippi, including in the capital city of Jackson, where advocates were working to help homeless people. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency published a list of warming shelters on its website and encouraged Mississippians to make emergency supply kits. 

The Associated Press reported that almost 12,000 weekend flights in the U.S. were canceled as the massive storm started to wreak havoc.

Roughly 140 million people, or more than 40% of the U.S. population, were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England. The National Weather Service forecast warned of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina. By midday Saturday, a quarter of an inch of ice was reported in parts of southeastern Oklahoma, eastern Texas and portions of Louisiana.

“What really makes this storm unique is, just following this storm, it’s just going to get so cold,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts.”

Correction, 1/24/2026: This story has been updated to attribute separate comments to Clarksdale residents Myles Forrest and Joanne Shedd. The Associated Press contributed to this report.