In its worst power outage in nearly a decade, one of every three Chattanooga homes and businesses lost power Sunday night when a tornado and high winds ripped through the South and cut off electricity service to 60,000 EPB customers.
The city-owned utility managed to restore service to half of those who initially lost power after two days of intensive recovery efforts, but EPB officials say it could still take a week or more to get power back to full service across its 600-square-mile area.
“We know the effects of this storm will continue to impact many families who were in the direct path of the storm as well as thousands of others who continue to experience outages,” EPB spokesman J.Ed. Marston said Tuesday. “Although we’re making significant progress, the many people who still need electricity continue to be first and foremost in our minds.”
EPB expects to have at least 210 crews on the restoration effort by Wednesday from EPB’s own staff and assistance from other power utilities in seven states. Collectively, more than 730 linemen and other repair crews are working in storm-damaged areas to restore power service.
“These crews are working on a full range of efforts, including removing fallen trees and damaged equipment, replacing broken utility poles and putting up new lines,” Marston said.