Quitman County, Mississippi · Marks
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Marks, Lambert and Crowder. Start the steps below while you wait.
Answered 24/7 by a participating local provider. We're a referral service and don't do the work ourselves. How it works
Start here
Pick the closest match. These steps limit the damage and protect your insurance claim. Skip anything that isn't safe.
With 34% of homes built before 1960 and about 4 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 15.5 times a year here, most often in March. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
34% of homes here predate 1960, when clay and cast iron sewer laterals were standard. Roots and cracks in those lines are a common cause of backups.
In Quitman County, 5.33 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
18% of occupied homes in Quitman County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Mississippi county median of 15.1%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 118 times a year in Quitman County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Quitman County covers 405 square miles of northern Mississippi, with about 5,774 residents and 3,026 homes. Marks is the county seat; Lambert, Crowder and Sledge are the next largest communities. The county's median home was built in 1972.
62/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Quitman County ranks 14 of 82 Mississippi counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Quitman County ranks highest compared with other Mississippi counties.
Quitman is on the colder side of Mississippi for pipes. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 4 nights a year at or below 20°F (17th of 82) and 38 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
On December 23, 2022 the low fell to about 5°F, and in the stretch ending February 2021 the county went 7 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs January. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Nov 13 and the last spring freeze around Mar 10.
Quitman gets fewer downpours than most Mississippi counties, but they still fill basements. The county gets about 58.2 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 15.5 days of an inch or more (65th of 82). Those downpours cluster in March, April and December, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 5.33 inches on June 9, 2021. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 10.42 inches (through June 10, 2021).
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 34 days a year. Each cycle melts and refreezes water at roof edges and in foundation cracks, which is how ice dams and basement seepage get started.
Housing
Roughly 63% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Quitman among the oldest housing stocks of Mississippi's 82 counties.
In Quitman County 34% of homes are older than 1960. If yours is one of them and the plumbing has never been replaced, expect galvanized steel supply pipe and cast iron drain lines, the two materials most likely to fail quietly.
About 27% of homes went up between 1980 and 1999. Some houses from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s were plumbed with polybutylene, a gray plastic pipe known for failing at fittings. A plumber can tell you in a few minutes whether you have it.
Here 18% of housing is manufactured homes. Check the skirting and the heat tape on the main water line every fall, because that one exposed line is what freezes.
Renters occupy 35% of homes. If you rent, the building is usually the landlord's to repair, but your belongings are only covered by renters insurance.
Beyond water
About 118 nights a year in Quitman County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (53rd of 82 counties). March is the wettest month. Keep indoor humidity under 60%, as the EPA advises, and dry any leak within 24 to 48 hours; in a humid month a wet basement left alone won't dry by itself.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Quitman County's occupied homes: 44% utility gas, 37% electric, 18% propane and under 1% wood. Propane heat is more common here than in most Mississippi counties. Heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fires nationally, and the NFPA recommends having chimneys and vents inspected every year.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Quitman County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Panola and Tunica get more pipe-freeze nights than Quitman. Coahoma County has the oldest housing nearby, with 67% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Quitman | Mississippi median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 34% | 15% | 2 of 82 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 63% | 45% | 5 of 82 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 9.9% | 23% | 82 of 82 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 18% | 20% | 54 of 82 |
| Vacant homes | 13% | 17% | 70 of 82 |
| Wood or propane heat | 18% | 15% | 32 of 82 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 4/yr | 3/yr | 17 of 82 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 16/yr | 16/yr | 65 of 82 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 34/yr | 32/yr | 35 of 82 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 118/yr | 125/yr | 53 of 82 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Mississippi county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Quitman County: freezing from January, heavy rain in March, April and December.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology