By John Howell

Panola County Emergency Management Director Daniel Cole said up to 1,200 homes were without power Thursday as an icy storm swept through the state bringing freezing rain, sleet and snow.

Although road conditions forced the closing of schools, non-essential government offices and many businesses and industries on Thursday, the area appeared to have avoided an ice storm with widespread power outages.

However, homes in the Pope-Courtland area served by Entergy of Mississippi lost power about 10:30 Wednesday night and were awaiting restoration 12 hours later.

“We’ve got some folks that are borderline irate,” Cole said.

Entergy’s outage web site showed 275 customers without power in the Courtland area and another 94 near Pleasant Grove.

Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Association CEO Brad Robison said the cooperative had only one weather-related outage. Another 63 customers north of Enid Dam were left without power for about an hour when an Entergy line fell across a TVEPA line, Robison said.

Cole said that he and other EMA employees were transporting essential employees to work at the Emergency Communications Center, Tri-Lakes Medical Center, Providence, “trying to keep everything operational.”

South Panola Schools District Superintendent Tim Wilder said a decision about holding school on Friday would be made Thursday afternoon.

North Delta Schools, out of school Thursday, is scheduled to begin its spring break on Friday.