It's been almost two weeks since an ice storm cut the power at Barbara Bishop's house in rural Mississippi, and she still finds herself lacking basic amenities such as light and unspoiled food. Light switches that don't work, a fridge full of spoiled food and the unsavory smells that come from it are just a few symptoms of the harsh winter storm they endured.
Barbara, 79, and her husband George, 85, live outside Oxford, where that ice storm didn't just knock out power but turned the entire community upside down. It turned trees into weapons. Ice-coated branches took down power lines and made roads so badly damaged that you couldn't drive on them even if you wanted to.
After the storm hit, the Bishops' home became a refuge. Their son showed up. Then their granddaughter with her two kids. All of them had lost power and water. So now it's seven people in one house, huddled around a single gas heater, trying to stay warm through days of bitter cold. For a stretch, they lost water, too.
"It's just been one of those times you just have to grit, grit your teeth and bare it," Barbara said.
That's what nearly 15,000 people across northern Mississippi were still doing Saturday morning – gritting their teeth two weeks later. PowerOutage.us showed the number had dropped from 180,000 customers in the immediate aftermath, but "dropping" doesn't mean much when you're still one of the thousands sitting in the dark.
Lafayette County, where Oxford is located, still has more than 3,000 customers without power.
Lafayette County had the most outages as of Saturday – about 3,244 customers. Tippah County had 2,879. Panola has over 2,000, while Yalobusha and Tishomingo counties both had more than 1,700 each. These aren't just numbers. These are families heating water on gas stoves. Elderly couples in their 80s wondering when normal comes back.
By Friday, temperatures in Oxford hit 70 degrees. But chunks of ice still covered the ground in shaded spots – a reminder that winter isn't done with them yet. Downed trees had been stacked into massive piles along the roadsides, some still smoldering from controlled burns. Power lines hung low over streets in places, dangling in parking lots. Tree limbs hung overhead like they were deciding whether to fall.
Mother Nature has finally started to bring some relief in terms of temperatures, with more consistently warmer weather expected this week, says meteorologist Rob Shackelford. The high Sunday is in the lower 60s, increasing to the upper 60s and lower 70s starting Monday. Weather shouldn't be too hazardous, with only slight chances of showers Tuesday night into Wednesday and to end the week.
Across the street from the Bishops, Russ Jones and his wife have been living without electricity or water. For days, they filled 5-gallon buckets to flush toilets. Cooked on their gas stove. Stayed warm by the fireplace. It works, technically. But it wears you down.
"It's been a shock to the system," Jones said.
He and his wife started staying with friends a few days ago – the kind of decision you don't want to make but eventually have to.
Friday, his yard was full of volunteers from Eight Days of Hope, a nonprofit that shows up when disasters hit. They cleared snapped limbs, hauled away a massive tree from his backyard and moved with the kind of efficiency that only comes from doing this over and over. The organization has been there for days, helping dozens of homeowners patch roofs and clean up yards. They've served more than 16,000 free meals.
Jones said it was a relief to have one less thing weighing on him. When a volunteer handed him a free T-shirt and a blanket for his wife, he had to hold back tears.
"It's just beyond anything I could ever imagine," he said.
Sometimes the help isn't what fixes everything. It's just what reminds you that you're not forgotten.
Portions of this report are from the Associated Press.
