Mississippi’s heat wave sparked a violent summer storm Wednesdaythat lit the overcast sky with lightning and dumped nearly twoinches of rain on Lincoln County.

Small hail rained down through much of central and southMississippi Wednesday and wind gusts broke off tree limbs, butlightning was the main threat, according to emergencyofficials.

A Lawrence County home at 388 Lambert Road was struck bylightning shortly before 2 p.m. and caught fire. Monticellofirefighters assisted the Topeka Volunteer Fire Department inputting out the blaze, which lasted most of the afternoon, saidHugh Summers, Monticello assistant fire chief.

In Brookhaven, damage was confined primarily to fallen treelimbs and power outages, officials said.

Brookhaven Street Department employee Ronnie Heathcock said citycrews were out immediately after the downpour let up and removedfallen limbs or trees on Kenner Lane, Byrd Street, Church Streetand Avenue A.

While some power lines were disrupted by fallen limbs in theMagnolia Electric Power Association, lightning strikingtransformers both directly and through power surges was the majorfactor in member outages, said Aaron Achord, a Magnoliaengineer.

“Most of our trouble was in southwest Lincoln County and AmiteCounty,” he said. “We had about 1,000 people out Wednesdayafternoon until about 9 p.m., except for a few select cases. It wasall restored by midnight.”

Entergy reported 13,000 customers statewide were without powerWednesday afternoon. As of 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, 5,000 Entergycustomers remained without power statewide, according to TheAssociated Press.

Entergy spokesman Checky Herrington said the worst networkoutages were in Brookhaven, Clinton, Rankin County and Natchez,according to AP. Detailed information about street-level outageswas not available.