“An extremely dangerous setup” – Elfer urges residents to have plan in place for incoming storms

Warren County Emergency Director John Elfer met with Vicksburg Daily News to discuss the next wave of storms expected to hit the Warren County area overnight.

“We’re right in the middle of the time of the year, in Mississippi, in this particular part of the country, where we’ve had these severe storms and this is no different than it has been the last couple of weeks,” stated Elfer. “Unfortunately it’s going to be in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.”

The storm is predicted to hit the Warren County area at around 2 a.m. or shortly after, and continue for several hours.

“[This is] an extremely dangerous setup. The threats in the morning seem to be 80 mile-per-hour potential winds and some spin-up tornadoes,” stated Elfer. He also advised that weather conditions could create difficulty for early travel.

With the storm system moving through overnight, Elfer also advised residents have more than one alert system to get notified and ensure they will be able to wake up for weather alerts and have adequate shelter. “Now is the time to be putting all those plans in place.”

Residents are urged to not hesitate to call 911 if they feel the need to. “Our responders will be out in the field, just like they always are. Our law enforcement is 24/7, our fire service and EMS is 24/7 and will be available to respond to anything that may come up,” said Elfer.  “As people need assistance, please call 911. If you live next to a responder, don’t call that responder because it just delays our response to you. Go ahead and just call 911 and if it’s not needed, that’s okay. That’s what we’re here for, to evaluate the call. If we don’t need to send everybody then you have not hurt anything by calling 911.”

Those who wish to report a non-emergency can call the non-emergency landline at 601-631-8800.