Volunteer Energy reported Monday progress made by crews working around the clock on the Cumberland Plateau.
At one time, the outages were estimated to be affecting 37,000 VEC customers across the cooperative’s 17-county service area. Damage to Tennessee Valley Authority transmission lines caused the loss of electric service to three substations in Cumberland County and all service to Fentress County.
Cumberland County had the highest concentration of outages, with 22,634 reported on Saturday. Monday morning, outage totals were 18,000 in Cumberland County; 2,200 outages in Fentress County; 300 outages in Overton County; 1,000 outages in Putnam County; and 1,300 outages in White County. Scattered outages were also reported in Bledsoe, Morgan, Rhea and Scott counties.
“With so many trees down and the icy road conditions, it is slow going in some areas,” said Clyde Jolley, VEC vice president of operations. About 300 power poles were broken during the storm.
VEC CEO Rody Blevins said the storm “is is the most devastating weather event we’ve encountered at VEC within recent memory.”