Update, 10:30 p.m.: In Clarksville, CDE Lightband still has 3,000 households without power.
In Montgomery County, CEMC is now down to 700 members without power.
Update, 7:15 p.m.: In Clarksville, CDE Lightband still has 3,300 households without power.
In Montgomery County, CEMC is now down to 886 members without power.
Weatherhead damage?
CDE Lightband noted to customers that CDE is only responsible for connecting its lines to the top of the weatherhead and installing a CDE Lightband meter to the meter base.
If your weatherhead is damaged, you will need to have an electrician repair it, then have it inspected by Building & Codes.
Thanks for the food
CDE thanked these businesses who provided large food orders for the crews:
- Publix on Trenton Road
- Chick-fil-A on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard
- Papa Johns
- Firehouse Subs
- Jimmy Johns
- Mission BBQ
- Wendy’s
- Bojangles
- Marcos Pizza
- Dickey’s Barbecue Pit
- Krystal’s
- Taco Bell
Publix on Trenton Road donated food and water. “This has been a tremendous help by allowing employees to focus solely on restoration,” CDE said.
“Also a shout out to Chick-Fil-A on Wilma Rudolph for your generosity by providing a free meal (Monday) to all departments and utilities that are working so hard to restore everyone’s power.”
Update, 12:50 p.m.: CDE has a total of 57 crews working to restore power – the most they’ve ever had.
With thousands of outages continuing in the wake of Friday’s storm, anyone who is dependent on life-sustaining medical devices should make other arrangements. “We can’t give an exact estimate for each home on when power will be restored,” CDE said.
If you receive a text from CDE that your power has been restored, but it’s actually not, text the word OUT to 85700.
Update, noon: In Montgomery County, CEMC is now down to 1,800 members without power.
“CEMC crews are making progress this morning and we are encountering a lot of damaged homes during our work,” CEMC said.
MORE: Beware of storm chasers after disaster, according to BBB
We have appreciated all of the community support for our worker
The utility offered this guidance if you have electrical damage to your home:
In Clarksville, CDE Lightband still has 4,500 households without power.
Previously:
CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Utility crews worked through the night to restore power in Clarksville and Montgomery County, but over 7,000 were still without power Sunday morning.
In Clarksville, CDE Lightband had 4,400 households without power at 8:30 a.m., down from 7,000 at 11 p.m.
“Our teams worked through the night to continue the restoration process in some of the hardest hit areas,” CDE said Sunday morning. “An additional 50 people are here today from our partner utility systems. This will have over 200 in the field and offices working around the clock. We’re getting everyone fed and ready to head back out.
“As we enter this third day of nonstop work, we are grateful for the support from the community,” CDE said.
In Montgomery County, CEMC had 2,700 members without power at 8:30 a.m.
Steps to restore power
CDE outlined the steps in restoring power, with hundreds of outages caused by the massive windstorm on Friday afternoon:
- Damage assessment
- Substation repair
- Restore primary distribution lines
- Repair secondary distribution lines
- Restore individual service to homes
“There are some areas that we are still in step 3, while others we have progressed into steps 4 and 5,” CDE said.
Help from out of state
Both agencies had crews in from out of state. On Saturday, crews from Arkansas were assisting CEMC, and CDE had crews in from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Georgia and Indiana.
Interstate 65 in Alabama was full of utility trucks on Saturday coming north to Middle Tennessee to help repair the damage and restore power.
“We would like to remind our customers to stay away from downed wires or damaged electrical equipment.
“If you are using a generator, never run it inside your home or garage.” Go to this site for more information on generator safety.
39,000 total lost power
A 79 mph wind gust was recorded at Outlaw Field at 12:56 p.m. Friday, the strongest recorded in Tennessee.
Those gusts took down trees, utility poles and power lines. At the height of the outage Friday afternoon, 31,000 of CDE’s 79,500 customers lost power.
Throughout the multi-county CEMC system, 48,000 members lost power, with over 8,000 of those in Montgomery County.