North Mississippi senators used the Senate floor Thursday to press for improvements in how Mississippi prepares for and responds to major winter storms, as thousands of residents still reported outages nearly three weeks after January’s Winter Storm Fern. Sen. Rita Potts Parks, R-Corinth, described what she said her constituents experienced during the days-long loss of power and water and urged lawmakers to act while the impacts are still fresh. She and other senators linked those problems to the timing of agency deliveries, power-transmission disruptions tied to downed Tennessee Valley Authority lines, and uncertainty around how quickly local governments will receive reimbursement.
Parks, whose district includes Alcorn and Tippah counties that she said were among the hardest hit, said in a Senate speech that “we as a state failed them” and that “I’m included.” She said hospitals and nursing homes in her district went more than four days without power or water. In describing conditions as the days passed, Parks said, “Can you imagine what those smells were like, what those cries were like by that second day?” She said the situation led to patients and residents needing repeated blankets to stay warm.
During the floor debate, Parks and Sen. Neil Whaley, R-Potts Camp, pointed to specific response timelines and responsibility gaps. Parks said getting resources from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency “took days,” adding that her district did not see supplies arrive until Tuesday, even though the storm’s impact began the prior weekend. She said about five or six counties went over two days without power transmission because Tennessee Valley Authority lines were down, calling that situation “historical” and “never supposed to happen.”
The Senate discussion centered on Senate Bill 2632, which Parks and other senators supported during consideration Thursday. The measure passed in the chamber and would next go to the House for discussion. If approved, DeLano said, it would create a “disaster recovery emergency loan program” for counties included in the recent federal disaster declaration, intended to provide funds early as counties and cities await FEMA reimbursements.
DeLano, R-Biloxi, described Winter Storm Fern-related damage as likely reaching $400 million and described the proposed program as a “revolving loan fund.” He said lawmakers plan to request $50 million in appropriations later in the session, though the bill itself does not set a dollar amount. Under his proposal, counties would have five years to repay the loans and would need to pledge a source of revenue if FEMA does not reimburse the funding. For projects FEMA rejects for reimbursement, DeLano said local entities would have two years to repay the loan.
Sen. Sollie Norwood, D-Jackson, raised concerns that counties could be left “on the hook” for recovery spending if FEMA does not reimburse costs. DeLano responded that lawmakers could use the two-year period to address any such shortfall. He added that the state could not offer the funding as a grant because it could be seen as duplicating benefits, in a way that might interfere with federal reimbursement rules.
Whaley spoke after Parks and emphasized operational breakdowns he said residents observed during the storm’s response. He said he lives in an area where the district lines of the Mississippi Department of Transportation meet and that he saw a plow truck blade not staying on the ground when it crossed that boundary. Whaley said “a lot of things have to be answered” and that he intends to bring “a lot of this out to light,” while also joining calls for better planning ahead of future events.
After the Senate action, DeLano said the Legislature would continue reviewing what went wrong and how to prepare for similar events. “We are going to have a lot of discussion over the next year about how we better prepare for these types of events,” he said later.
While the Senate debated the new state loan concept, power restoration remained an issue. About 1,700 Mississippians still did not have power as of Thursday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, though the estimate did not include all electric utilities in the state. Northern District Public Service Commissioner Chris Brown said municipal systems, such as the Holly Springs Utility Department, were not included in that tally and that as of Thursday it still had about 500 outages.
In addition to Senate Bill 2632, lawmakers also advanced other measures aimed at supporting recovery and preparing for reduced federal disaster support. House Bill 1645 would create state versions of FEMA programs, the bill passed the House on Thursday and would move to the Senate. Federal aid was also unfolding alongside the state legislative process: the U.S. Small Business Administration said Wednesday that low-interest loans were available for certain private nonprofits in multiple counties, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday a set of assistance measures for Mississippians, including a 90-day foreclosure pause for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
Taylor Vance contributed to this report.