Video: Power Restored After Pole Falls In Oktibbeha County

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OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- Emily Howell lives off Artesia Road in Oktibbeha County. She and her husband were sound asleep when they suddenly felt a change in temperature around 5a.m.

“I realized it was pitch black inside and outside and so that’s when I knew the power was out,” said Howell.

Wondering what happened she grabbed her phone.

“We came upstairs and called the power company. I did report it on instagram because all of the electric company said was that there was an outage in my area so I was looking for more answers and that’s why I came to ya’ll (WCBI),” said Howell.

When WCBI called TVA and 4-County electric, we found out Emily wasn’t alone. Officials tell us a broken power pole cause a massive black out, affecting more than 6,000 Oktibbeha County residents.

“TVA had a pole on one of their transmission lines in Oktibbeha County fall over and that took out power to about 2 of our substations,” said Jon Turner, Manager of Public Relations with 4-County Electric.

Crews spent most of Tuesday replacing the broken pole off Oktock Road. By mid-afternoon, most residents had power, but it wasn’t an easy task.

“There’s a lot of rainy weather and the ground is soft. It’s a big metal pole, it’s a heavy wire,” said Turner.

And just like Emily, 4-County electric kept people up-to-date using social media.

“We have a very strong presence on twitter and facebook. We got the word out quickly. There was a lot of back and forth so that’s a real good way for folks to kind of keep apprised of what’s going on when we have major outages,” said Turner.

Before noon, lights were back on at Emily’s apartment.

“I’m really thankful for the power company for doing their jobs and I really appreciate that they get out a 5 in the morning to come help people get their power back on in a day rather than days,” said Howell.

As for the cause, they tell us guidewires that help hold the pole down, came out, which may have resulted in the pole’s collapse.

Various efforts from places, like Starkville Electric Department, fed electricity to all but 1,000 people by noon and less than 100 people by 1pm.