The third time was not the charm for Marion County, but then again maybe it was. Three times the county has been in the cone for hurricanes, and the one that finally hit did minimal damage Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.
Category 2 Hurricane Zeta made landfall Wednesday evening near Cocodrie, La. While areas along the coast in Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received substantial damage from the winds, rain and storm surge, by the time the eye wall hit the southeast part of Marion County, the storm had weakened significantly.
Throughout the county limbs and pine straw could be seen on the roads. Winds gusts were reported as high as 42 mph, according to Deputy Director Cindy Williamson with the Civil Defense. In different parts of the county, including at least one in Columbia, trees also felled due to Zeta. Power outages were reported in Goss, Pine Burr and other areas.
According to Leif Munkel with the Pearl River Valley Electric Power Association, as of 6 a.m. Thursday morning 15,000 members were currently without power. Most of those without power were located in Lamar, Forrest and Stone counties.
Thursday a crew with Mississippi Power was working on White Street where a tree fell across the road, knocking down power lines.
A tree also fell on a vehicle on Enon Road from the storm and knocked down power lines next to a home.
Beat 5 Supervisor Calvin Newsom said he has not received a lot of calls of problems in his area other than a few trees being down. He said normally if bad weather comes through causing problems, he hears of it right away but it had not been that bad. Beat 5 is where part of the eyewall passed over as Zeta made its way East Thursday.
Williamson said the county received 1.8 inches of rain.
Neighboring state Louisiana has been hit hard this year with storms. Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Cristobal, Beta and Zeta have all made landfall there, the most that has ever hit the state since the beginning of keeping records in 1851.
Hurricane season does not officially end until Nov. 30.
