GULFPORT, Miss. - Sept. 15, 2008 - Mississippi Power experienced widespread outages over the weekend as a result of tropical winds from Hurricane Ike causing significant salt contamination and dust buildup on the company’s electrical equipment.

Personnel have been fighting the impact of the winds since Friday to maintain power from Waveland to Pascagoula.

Today at 2 a.m., Mississippi Power had a peak of approximately 14,000 customers without power. That number was down to roughly 1,200 customers without power at 7 a.m. As of 8 a.m., the number increased to approximately 1,700 as customers began waking up and recognizing they were without power, but by 9 a.m. that figure had dropped to about 987 customers.

Mississippi Power has brought in company crews from Hattiesburg and Meridian to expedite restoration. Customers can expect to see outages and blinks of service until the territory gets a hard rain. The company is working with local fire departments to rid the lines of the continued buildup of salt and dust particles. These local departments have provided outstanding performance and we appreciate their assistance.

Mississippi Power customers can call the automated outage system to quickly and conveniently report a power outage at 1.800.532.1502.

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Web site: www.mississippipower.com

Media Contact: Cindy Duvall, MPC Corporate Communications, 228.865.5543 or 1.800.821.6383, cwduvall@southernco.com