OXFORD, Miss. — Major storms ripped through North Mississippi knocking out power and causing damage overnight.
Crews with the city of Oxford spent the morning restoring power lines after several trees fell.
“A tree spilt off around 4:30 a.m. this morning and knocked out 17 customers here on North Ninth Street,” said Rob Neely, with Oxford Utilities.
Neely said it was all hands-on deck Wednesday morning after strong winds, fallen trees and lightning briefly knocked out power for 800 to 1,000 people. One of the hardest hit areas was along North Ninth Street where a tree blocked the roadway.
“I would say we’re closing in on the restoration, but we just had another limb split off on the side of this tree,” said Neely. “It’s a very dangerous situation right now.”
Just as crews were wrapping up that job, another large tree limb fell on an Oxford School District bus. Police quickly arrived to direct traffic as crews worked to remove the tree limb.
Oxford Public School officials said there were students on the bus at the time, but they are all okay.
Despite the damage, many residents WREG’s Quametra Wilborn spoke to said they weren’t aware of how bad it was until they heard chainsaws.
The new damage comes just days after the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said weekend storms damaged at least six homes and one business in Lafayette County and at least one person was injured.
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