The audio version of this story is AI generated and is not human reviewed. It may contain errors or inaccuracies. YALOBUSHA COUNTY — Power outages and icy, blocked roads caused by Winter Storm Fern were more than an inconvenience for Rubijo Purdy. They were a threat to her life.  Without ele ctricity in her home, Purdy couldn’t charge the ventilator she needs for help breathing at night.  After a couple of days without the ventilator and supplemental oxygen, she had to get help. Each day, for three days, she pulled the 20-pound device up a hill from her home to her car parked on the nearby main road.  Purdy has osteoporosis. Using a cane, she ducked under fallen pines and climbed over collapsed cypresses in her driveway. She carefully crossed the icy mud and gravel path up the hill. She was afraid she wouldn’t make it, but she did. She drove to a nearby hospital, where staff  charged her ventilator. By the end of that week on Jan. 31, a concerned community member used a chainsaw to cut the fallen limbs and trees, and a neighbor lent her a generator.  More than two weeks after the ice storm, Yalobusha County residents are still facing persistent power outages and dead trees that loom ominously over bedrooms and porches. Yalobusha County is in heavily wooded and hilly north central Mississippi, about a two-hour drive north of Jackson on I-55. On Thursday, more than a third of the county’s roughly 12,500  residents were still without power — including Purdy. Uprooted and mangled trees piled up in many front yards in the county. Clearings and stumps replaced areas that once were densely wooded. County government workers in T-shirts and with bags under their eyes tended to their cold and hungry — residents in an agricultural complex outside Coffeeville.  Twenty-nine deaths are attributed to the ice storm so far, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency announced Friday. As of Tuesday morning, roughly 1,100 customers, or 14%, were still without power in Yalobusha County — the second-highest percentage of any county in Mississippi. Only Benton County in the northeast corner of the state had a higher percentage of residents without electricity, at about 33%.  Yalobusha County officials estimate it will take 60 days to remove all storm debris from local roads with financial help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Mississippi Emergency Management agency. Branches and limbs block Rubijo Purdy’s driveway in Water Valley, on Feb. 5, 2026. Credit: Leonardo Bevilacqua/Mississippi Today The cold snap from Fern didn’t last long, but the damage did. Workers are still cleaning up fallen trees and broken limbs. They’re still repairing downed power lines. “It’s like a tornado went through here,” Purdy said, pointing to stretches of forest where nearly every tree was either bent or snapped. She drove over at least four downed power lines that lay loose on the road like shriveled, black ribbons. Still more hung above the road through bent branches like drooping, thin garlands. Tempers flare amid ongoing storm recovery County leaders opened a warming shelter and emergency supplies depot in the county multipurpose building as soon as roads were safe for travel.  But some locals still without power are criticizing the speed of local leaders’ response, and county officials are trying to be more transparent about the recovery effort. They’re posting regular updates on Facebook. At supervisors’ meetings, they are explaining the process of accepting bids for contracted county work. Frustrations over the storm recovery have fueled discontent.  On Thursday, the Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Office shared in a Facebook post that deputies are now guarding linemen, who have been threatened. A later post announced the arrest of Douglas Pullen, who deputies charged with telephone harassment, which they say was directed toward Tallahatchie Valley Electric Power Authority and its employees. At a meeting of the Yalobusha County Board of Supervisors on Thursday, President Cayce Washington said Brad Robison, CEO of Tallahatchie Valley Authority Electric Power Association, relocated his family after receiving death threats. A majority of the remaining Mississippians without power are TVA Electric Power Association customers concentrated in Yalobusha, Tallahatchie, Lafayette, and Panola counties. As linemen worked their way down country roads in bucket trucks, county officials were choosing contractors to clear the twisted trees in their way. The forest surrounding the community had thinned noticeably, with mangled trunks and sideways branches. Yalobusha County Multi Purpose Building interior on Feb. 5, 2026. Credit: Leonardo Bevilacqua/Mississippi Today By Thursday morning, the corner conference room on the third floor of the Yalobusha County Circuit Courthouse was full of contractors, some from as far as Texas and as near as Picayune. Washington passed their requests for proposals to the other board members seated in red cushioned high back chairs. FEMA and the MEMA would help fund debris removal across the county. The county had to hire a company to remove storm debris, a firm to monitor that company, and a consultant to ensure the process follows federal and state guidelines.  After two hours of deliberation, supervisors approved a debris removal contract with Texas-based TFR Enterprises for roughly $3.4 million, which was calculated by the county based on the contractor’s rate per cubic yard. The costs of the storm and rural life For county residents in the more rural neighborhoods, the ice storm’s devastation proved particularly costly. The bucolic charm and affordable living came at the cost of proximity to emergency services. It also meant that people live with energy infrastructure that’s more susceptible to extreme weather. Purdy lives in an area so rural the road doesn’t appear on Google Maps. Mobile homes and shacks sit beside multilevel estates and A-frames. The neighborhood has families from various income brackets. Purdy also lived through the 1994 winter storm, which caused extensive damage including about $1.3 billion in damaged timber, more than 8,000 downed utility poles, lost water service for 741,000 customers and up to 300,000 Entergy customers without power in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service. Last week, about five power lines were still down on Purdy’s street, with snapped trees propping up the wires. “We all like to live in the woods,” Purdy said, “but when this happens, boy, it gets costly.” Meanwhile, county residents who could not leave their homes are figuring out ways to prepare meals and stay warm without power. They’re also covering unexpected costs for fuel, batteries and trips to the laundromat. Diane Watson-Williams stayed in a room at the closest available hotel — nearly an hour and a half away in Tunica. She estimated that she has spent more than $1,000 on delivered meals and restaurant takeout. “It’s been a really rough week and a half,” she said.  Williams sent some of her family members to stay with a relative in Nashville, but she couldn’t leave her disabled father alone in his home. She was nervous of the loose power lines and meters, and the risk of electrical fires.  She has been juggling family obligations and work, driving for access to reliable Wi-Fi to complete her work as an escrow agent. Williams said she is grateful to receive regular updates from Tallahatchie Valley EPA, but she wonders where they were immediately after the storm. A fallen tree remains on a property on the outskirts of Water Valley in early February, about two weeks after Winter Storm Fern. Credit: Leonardo Bevilacqua/Mississippi Today “I feel like the county within itself has been forgotten about,” she said. “After those first two nights, it had gotten really cold for me, and I just couldn’t take it anymore.” Over a half dozen Yalobusha County residents told Mississippi Today they are depleting their savings as local schools and job sites remain closed. Utility poles and trees still block roads across the mostly rural county. Williams had to throw away hundreds of dollars of food, as well. She hopes her insurance company will reimburse her hotel room cost, but she said the power company wouldn’t confirm the power outage so she could qualify.  Other residents might face unexpected medical costs.  Timmy McCoy, a nurse practitioner at Progressive Health of Batesville hospital, has seen an uptick in hypothermia patients. Many patients have also sought care for broken hips and other injuries from falls. “The only thing that I know that we can do is just pray and keep looking forward,” he said. “The people in Yalobusha have been Yalobusha County strong.” Volunteers and community groups are also helping residents by providing storm recovery essentials.  The Yalobusha County Multipurpose Building outside Coffeeville is temporarily a warming center and supply depot. A crew prepared and served meals with help from World Central Kitchen and Gunny Cole, a Tennessee-based U.S. Marine Corps veteran and perennial volunteer in wake of natural disasters in the region. The American Red Cross donated blankets for distribution.  Darrel Cole, a county resident, said he has felt immense gratitude for the county government workers who ensured he received a propane tank and other supplies. In the remote area where he lives, many homes had damage to roofs and vehicles. Large branches nearly missed his mobile home but did nick his porch. “This community stood together,” he said. “It’s a small place. Everybody knows everybody. There’s a lot of people helping out, some that I grew up with, some that I haven’t seen in years.” Mack Parker, a Lions Club International member, survived the 2021 winter storm that led to a grid failure where he lived in central Texas before he moved to Yalobusha County. He felt more connected to the community in the wake of the winter storm.  “It’s important to know your neighbor because you never know who is going to be in need,” Parker said. “It’s just been crazy to see the magnitude of it. Everyone has been impacted.” Update, 2/10/2026: This story has been updated with power outage numbers for Tuesday morning, Feb. 10. ...read more read less