East Brainerd area loses electricity when tree falls on power line

Friday, August 2, 2013

A downed EPB line left nearly 4,000 customers in East Brainerd without power Friday night, EPB spokesman John Pless said around 10:15 p.m.

Pless said a tree appeared to have fallen on a major distribution line and knocked out the area's power.

Friday's Times Free Press featured a story about an EPB press conference where officials at Chattanooga's largest power supplier suspected that ample summer rain has left area trees at risk to fall.

The outage peaked at 3,900 customers, Pless said, and by 10:15 p.m., nearly half of those customers were back on, thanks to the automatic smart grid system, he said.

Around 1,700 customers were still without power around 10:15 p.m.

Pless said bringing East Brainerd back online should not take long, but repairing the line could mean a long night for power crews, he said.