Damaged transmission lines at TVA’s Widows Creek Fossil Fuel Plant block Jackson County Highway 96 in Bridgeport.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry – The Chattanooga Times Free PressWe are so accustomed to convenient electricity that we tend to take it for granted – until it goes out.
Of course, we experienced that firsthand in recent months, as tornadoes and other big storms throughout the Southeast caused massive damage to electrical lines and triggered power outages.
Most of the interruptions have been relatively brief, though some people were without service for longer periods.
The Tennessee Valley Authority and its distributors transmit power via overhead lines to countless homes and businesses. The lines obviously are vulnerable to high winds, and the tornadoes and other severe storms reportedly knocked out 108 TVA power transmission lines and 353 power towers.
Numerous power distributors and hundreds of thousands of their residential and business customers suffered power loss.