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.
Heather Hurt’s collection of candles and flashlights in Corinth on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. Credit: Courtesy of Heather HurtThe 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.
A power line drapes across the road in Corinth on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. Credit: Courtesy of Heather HurtAshe 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.
A backyard in Corinth on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. Credit: Courtesy of Heather HurtPastor 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.
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