Over 85K MLGW customers without power as utility company explains cause of outages - FOX13 Memphis

Over 85K MLGW customers without power as utility company explains cause of outages | News | fox13memphis.com

SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. - MLGW said on Tuesday night that the Tennessee Valley Authority's system that supplies power to the utility company was struck by lightning as well as some of MLGW substations.

The impact caused what Memphis Light, Gas and Water called a "large" number of power outages across Memphis.

As of 8:48 a.m., Wednesday, 85,122 customers were without power due to 1,399 outages, according to the MLGW outage map.

In addition, the utility company said there were downed powerlines, poles and trees causing many of the outages.

MLGW said it activated its emergency operations center to work toward full power restoration.

The utility company also said that 35 contract repair crews will join MLGW "first thing in the morning" on Wednesday to help with repairs.

Below is the full statement from MLGW president Doug McGowen:

"This evening, a severe thunderstorm rolled through the Memphis area bringing significant lightning and wind gusts in excess of 65mph. The lightning directly impacted some of TVA's transmission system stations as well as MLGW distribution system substations, resulting in a large number of outages.

At the same time, straight-line wind gusts brought down many power poles and powerlines and also downed a significant number of trees and tree limbs, which caused additional damage to electrical infrastructure and more outages. On Winchester Blvd for example, a line of eleven poles and associated power lines were downed by straight-line winds.

Overnight we will focus on three areas of restoration:

First, our system operators and troublemen will work to reroute power to as many customers who can take power. This temporary measure gets customers back on, and allows us to work on damaged areas of the system. Our priority for rerouting power will be to hospitals and essential other utilities like wastewater and water systems.

Second, our repair crews will work to clear roadways of electrical hazards so that emergency crews and repair crews can move safely around the service area. This will also permit a safe morning commute, though drivers should expect many traffic signals to be without power and inoperative.

Third, we will be working on damage assessment and identifying causes of outages so that our crews can begin to repair them in earnest.

Thirty five contract repair crews will join our MLGW crews first thing in the morning to help with the restoration process, and they will be joined by 37 tree crews who will be clearing debris in advance of making repairs. More repair and tree crews will join throughout the day and we will continue to add crews as we identify repairs that they can make.

The MLGW emergency operations center was activated earlier this evening and will be operating continually until we get every customer restored.

I will have more information to share in the morning."

Customers are asked to report outages on their MLGW account or call 544-6500.

Call 528-4465 to report downed lines and other emergencies.

Also on Tuesday afternoon, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said that the red lights were out from U.S. 64 in Shelby County to the Fayette County line.

Below are previous updates of power outages:

As of 9:39 p.m., 121,106 customers were without power due to 1,358 outages, according to the MLGW outage map.

As of 7:40 p.m., 138,738 MLGW customers are without power due to 1,213 outages.

As of 7:30 p.m., 122,286 MLGW customers are without power due to 2,704 outages.

As of 6:55 p.m., 109,090 MLGW customers are without power due to 2,734 outages.

As of 6:45 p.m., 98,618 MLGW customers are without power due to 2,942 outages.

As of 6:40 p.m., 89,697 MLGW customers are without power due to 2,997 outages.

As of 6:35 p.m., 80,076 MLGW customers are without power due to 3,116 outages.

As of 6:30 p.m., 69,668 MLGW customers are without power due to 3,078 outages.

As of 6:26 p.m., 61,136 MLGW customers are without power due to 2,904 outages.

As of 6:20 p.m., 51,883 MLGW customers are without power due to 2,672 outages.

As of 6:18 p.m., 73,938 MLGW customers are without power due to 2,409 outages.

As of 5 p.m., the number of customers without power dropped significantly to 1,427 due to 28 outages, according to MLGW.

As of 4:50 p.m., 10,538 MLGW customers were without power due to 33 outages.

According to the MLGW map, more than 10,000 customers are without power due to 30 outages, as of 4:11 p.m.
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