Madison County remains under tropical storm warning, flash flood watch

Madison County remains under tropical storm warning, flash flood watch

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Central Mississippi including Madison County remains under a tropical storm warning and a flash flood watch Monday morning as Hurricane Ida, now downgraded to a tropical storm, moves through the area bringing heavy winds and rains.

Schools throughout Madison County canceled classes Monday and garbage service was suspended Monday.

Albert Jones III, Madison County emergency management director, said the county has had reports of falling trees on roads and damaged power lines.

“If you don’t have to go anywhere today, stay home,” Jones said Monday morning. “Trees are falling, and the ground is very saturated. Hopefully, sometime before 4 p.m. we’ll be sending people out to clean off the roads and the ground won’t be quite as saturated.”

In Canton, Chief of Police Otha Brown said anyone who wants to seek shelter can go to Mount Zion at 514 West North Street as they have a shelter set up that is open to anyone.

“We’re asking people when water is rising to take their personal belongings and cars to higher ground,” Brown said. “You can contact the Canton police department at 601-859-2121 if you need help and need somewhere to go.”

Brown said as of now, no damage or power outages have been reported.

“Just stay safe and stay off the streets,” he said.

Hurricane Ida came ashore near Grand Isle, Louisiana, as just before noon Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane and more than 1 million electric customers in Louisiana were without electricity Monday and more than 100,000 electric customers were without electricity Monday in Mississippi.

Jones said according to Entergy around 7 a.m. Monday morning, 1,100 power outages were reported in Madison County. Combined with other power providers in Madison County a total of 2,705 electric customers in Madison County were without power Monday morning, according to poweroutage.us that tracks power outages nationwide.

The National Hurricane Center downgraded Ida to a tropical storm overnight as it moved inland.

As of NHC’s 7 a.m. Monday report Tropical Storm Ida was moving through southwest Mississippi near the Homochitto National Forest in Franklin County.

“Ida is moving toward the north near 8 mph, and this general motion is forecast to continue today. A faster northeastward motion is expected to begin by tonight and continue on Tuesday,” the National Hurricane Center’s 7 a.m. update states. “On the forecast track, the center of Ida will move farther inland over southwestern Mississippi this morning. Ida is then forecast to move over central and northeastern Mississippi this afternoon and tonight, and move across the Tennessee Valley on Tuesday.”

Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 45 mph with higher gusts and the tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 150 miles.

“Additional rapid weakening is forecast during the next day or so, and Ida is expected to become a tropical depression this afternoon,” the NHC states.

Today’s Madison County forecast from the National Weather Service of Jackson calls for temperatures in the mid-70s with east winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts near 35 mph becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph this afternoon and a near 100% chance of rain.

Showers and thunderstorms are expected to continue into Monday evening with a chance of showers after midnight and clearing up by Tuesday afternoon.






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