The storms that whipped Hamilton County with three tornadoes as February gave way to March may cost the county and city governments more than $5 million.
“And that’s not counting individual homeowner damages,” said Bill Tittle, chief of Hamilton County Emergency Management. As of Thursday, he said, about 235 homeowners and business owners had reported private-structure damage.
The city-owned EPB amassed a nearly $4 million repair and overtime tab, said company spokeswoman Lacie Newton.
During the four days that EPB crews toiled to get the lights on for 61,106 homes and businesses, “we had 309 crewmen from Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky working in the field to restore power to our customers,” she said.
The storm that caused wind damage throughout the county and dropped tornadoes on Signal Mountain, Red Bank and South Pittsburg left EPB with 125 broken power poles, she said. The blizzard of 1993, which dropped 20 inches of snow at the airport, broke only 87 poles, Newton said.