School officials in Leflore County are preparing for rough winter weather Thursday, saying they will be monitoring the situation hour by hour.
“We’re going to monitor the weather and make the decision as soon as possible,” said Dr. Margie Pulley, superintendent of the Greenwood School District Tuesday.
Pulley said Assistant Superintendent Jim Mattox and Cleveland Banks, the district’s transportation coordinator, would be working early Thursday morning, keeping an eye on conditions. She said the district would take all the precautions necessary for the students’ safety.
“I can’t say on Tuesday we’ll be off on Thursday. I know the kids would love that, but I can’t do it,” Pulley said.
In the Leflore County School District, administrators also are watching the weather closely.
Snow is the forecast for north and central Mississippi on Thursday with accumulations up to an inch, according to the National Weather Service.
Today will be partly cloudy by afternoon with highs in the low 40s. Tonight there is an 80 percent chance of precipitation with snow and freezing rain likely after midnight. Lows will be in the 20s.
Benny Herring, Greenwood Public Works director, told the City Council Tuesday the forecast didn’t look good. “It appears the front is going to come through tomorrow evening and all day Thursday. How much we may or may not get depends on where it goes,” he said.
Herring said his department is as ready as it can be. “We’ve got salt, we’ve got sand, we’ve got pea gravel. We’re preparing for the worst and hoping for the best,” he said.
Daytime temperatures Thursday are expected in the low 30s with nighttime temperatures in the low teens. The weather service has issued a winter weather advisory for the entire state until 1 p.m. Thursday. The Greenwood area will be under a hard freeze watch from Thursday night through Sunday morning.
A Lauderdale County man has died of hypothermia, the first such confirmed case in the state.
Lauderdale County Coroner Clayton Cobler said today the body of Billy Joe Fuller, 68, was found Tuesday in his home in the Zero community. Cobler said the preliminary cause of death is being ruled as hypothermia.
Cobler said two butane gas heaters were on inside the home but that the tank outside was empty.
