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EPB gives $438,000 in bill credits for lost telecom services during tornadoes

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The first light of day finds activity as crews ready for another day in restoring power. In the wake of the EF3 Tornado on Easter Sunday night the parking lot at Hamilton Place Mall has become a staging area for the personal and equipment engaged in restoring services to the effected areas. The site was photographed on April 21, 2020.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The first light of day finds activity as crews ready for another day in restoring power. In the wake of the EF3 Tornado on Easter Sunday night the parking lot at Hamilton Place Mall has become a staging area for the personal and equipment engaged in restoring services to the effected areas. The site was photographed on April 21, 2020. Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / The first light of day finds activity as crews ready for another day in restoring power. In the wake of the EF3 Tornado on Easter Sunday night the parking lot at Hamilton Place Mall has become a staging area for the personal and equipment engaged in restoring services to the effected areas. The site was photographed on April 21, 2020.

By Dave Flessner 3 min read

Nearly one of every five customers of EPB’s internet, video or phone services is getting a break on his or her monthly bill for April due to the interruptions caused by the storms and tornadoes that ripped through Chattanooga on Easter night.

EPB is crediting bills for about 21,000 of the roughly 110,000 subscribers to EPB Fiber Optics services due to outages during the storms and their aftermath. EPB spokesman J.Ed. Marston said Wednesday that the utility is collectively cutting bills by about $438,000, or more than $20 for the average household or business that lost telecommunications services during April.

“Even though the tornadoes and severe weather in April were an act of nature, we want our customers to know how much we appreciate their patience during the restoration,” Marston said. “Providing a credit to EPB Fiber Optics customers who experienced a lasting service disruption is our way of doing what we can for them in a very trying circumstance.”

Marston said EPB has previously made such credits for fiber optic customers who lost service due to storms or line interruptions, but last month’s storms ended up being the costliest for repairs in EPB’s 81-year history.

More than 60,000 electricity customers of EPB also lost service due to the April 12-13 storms and their power bills are likely to be down as well because of the drop in electricity usage in the storm- affected areas. EPB revenues through the first 10 months of the year were $21 million below year-ago levels, EPB President David Wade told the EPB board earlier this month.