Mississippi Governor Tells Crowd It’s ‘A Great Day to Not Be in Jackson’ as City Recovers from Water Crisis
ROGELIO V. SOLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) told a crowd in Hattiesburg, Mississippi that it’s “a great day to not be” in the capital city of Jackson on Friday.
Life in the city of 150,000 has been upended the last seven weeks after floods rendered Jackson’s largest water treatment facility inoperable. On Thursday, officials finally lifted an order telling residents to boil tap water before consuming it.
Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for Jones Capital, a Houston-based private equity firm, Reeves indicated he’s glad he’s not in Jackson.
“I’ve got to tell you,” he began.”It is a great day to be in Hattiesburg. It’s also, as always, a great day to not be in Jackson.”
The crowd chuckled.
“It is a great day to be in Hattiesburg. It’s also, as always, a great day to not be in Jackson.”
—Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, belittling his own capital city that just spent more than 1.5 months without clean running waterpic.twitter.com/KOuPdFLu9D— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) September 16, 2022
The governor’s remarks were flagged by Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press. Pittman noted that 83% of Jackson residents are Black. He added that while Hattiesburg is also mostly Black, those in attendance were “overwhelmingly White.”
On Thursday, Reeves warned that Jackson’s water treatment operations are still “imperfect.”
“The system is still imperfect, and we’re going to address issues throughout the duration of the state’s response,” he said. “It is possible, although I pray not inevitable, that there will be further interruption. We cannot perfectly predict what will go wrong with such a broken system.”
