Tennessee Valley Authority and local power company personnel said Tuesday night they have restored power to more than 90% of the homes and businesses that suffered power outages from the series of tornadoes that swept through northwest Tennessee and western Kentucky late Friday and early Saturday.
So far, 226,000 consumers who lost power during the weekend storms have regained electricity service. On Tuesday, TVA said crews restored another customer connection point – the interface between TVA's transmission system and local power company distribution system – serving Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, as well as a connection point for one of TVA's direct-served industrial customers. Since Saturday, 18 of the 21 impacted connection points serving seven different local power companies have been restored.
TVA crews are focused on returning the final three connection points that serve areas near Mayfield, Kentucky and Lexington, Tennessee - two of the hardest hit communities in TVA's 7-state service territory. In both areas, storms damaged transmission towers that must be cleared and rebuilt before power lines can be safely re-energized.
More than 160 TVA line workers, additional contractor crews and TVA Aviation Services helicopter crews remain in the field working to restore power.
The storms were the most destructive to impact the region since the April 2011 tornado outbreak.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner