Snow visits Mississippi… Couple's death blamed on icy roadways

By Staff
Jan. 2, 2001
JACKSON (AP) The deaths of a Tennessee husband and wife are being blamed on icy roadways left by a winter weather system that dumped up to three inches of snow across Mississippi.
The couple was killed about 8 a.m. Monday in Clarke County after their vehicle hit a patch of ice on Interstate 55, said Master Sgt. Walter Armstrong, spokesman for the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
They lost control and ran off the road into trees,'' Armstrong said of the couple whose names were not immediately released.
Troopers worked more than 100 accidents before the snow began to melt Monday afternoon.
The snowfall began Sunday night and continued into early Monday, with most of the accumulation in the Mississippi Delta.
The snow has ended and clouds have decreased. This is it,'' said Lynn Burse, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said Monday.
Burse said no precipitation was expected for today, but a hard freeze warning remained in effect overnight.
Some vehicles skidded off roads in Jackson, where snow is a rare occurrence. No serious accidents were reported in Hinds County, said Deputy D.W. Errington.
There are not that many people on the road,'' Errington said. We're actually very shocked people are driving so well.''
Minor accidents kept law enforcement officers busy elsewhere in the state. Fender-benders and cars leaving roadways were reported in Grenada, Lee, Simpson and Panola counties.
We've had five accidents,'' Simpson County Sheriff's Department dispatcher, Gloria Thomas, said. People are just sliding off the roads. Now, the snow is melting.''
Mississippi was not the only southeastern state to receive snow this weekend. The weather system also dumped snow in Louisiana and Arkansas, a state still recovering from a December ice storm that left thousands without power or water.
Entergy Mississippi spokesman, Robert Lesley, said the Sunday night snowfall did not cause any significant problems for the company's customers.
Entergy crews worked Monday to restore power to 1,000 customers in Charleston, but Lesley said the outage was not weather-related. Power was restored in about an hour.