Mississippi Power crews are storm ready as hurricane season begins

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) - The calendar says June 1. But for Mississippi Power, it’s always storm season. The company has already responded to several bad weather events locally and regionally.

“We’ve already sent crews to Alabama this year to help respond to some severe weather events,” said Jeff Shepard, Mississippi Power spokesperson. “We’ve had severe weather in our own territory where crews from the Coast responded to recovery efforts in the Meridian area. Our guys are storm tested. In 2021, I believe we spent at least two months responding to storms.”

It’s good to stay ahead of those storms. At Mississippi Power, they stay ahead of storms by staying ahead of the supply chain. They have vital equipment ready to go at several local offices and centers.

“Whether it’s our engineers, people at our generating plant, our supply chain employees, everyone has a job they do on a daily basis, but you also have a storm role, and you have to prepare for that,” Shepard said. “Whether it’s logistics, whatever it takes for Mississippi Power to respond.”

The main goal is to get the lights back on after a storm as safely and efficiently as possible.

“We’re constantly working on that and honing our skills to give better response to our customers,” he added.

Part of that commitment is investing in a stronger, more reliable power grid. The company’s self-healing networks were created to automatically isolate problems and restore service to affected areas. They say more than 90% of Mississippi Power customers will be part of a self-healing network by 2024.

Learn more about how you can prepare for storms, see outage maps, and learn about generator safety in Mississippi Power’s online Storm Center.

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