Ellington

The Clarion-Ledger reports today that the 75 percent of Jackson resident still without power could face weeks in the dark:

Power for Jackson residents is likely days, if not weeks, away as Entergy crews work to restore electricity to hospitals and emergency-related buildings. At the peak outages, about 97 percent of Entergy's customers in Hinds County were without power. Entergy Mississippi CEO Carolyn Shanks said as of 2 p.m. today, about 75 percent of customers were without power. Some Jackson neighborhoods will need complete rebuilding of their electrical systems, the mayor said.

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton estimated costs for cleanup, overtime and repairs would run well into the millions in Jackson alone. [...]

Shanks said crews are still assessing all the damage two days after Hurricane Katrina threw limbs and into power lines and trees on homes.

Trees won't be removed from lines until they've all been assessed, she said. "We're beginning to work on our priorities of water plants, police stations, hospitals and shelters," she said.