BARTLETT, TN -
Tens of thousands of people are still without power because of the storm. MLGW and Entergy crews are working overtime to get everyone out of the dark. In Mississippi, an Entergy spokesperson says nearly 9,000 people are without power.
Most of those outages are in Southaven where nearly 8,000 have no service. In Arkansas, Entergy tells us more than 23,000 customers have no electricity, 229 in Crittenden County, more than 1300 in Saint Francis County, and 129 customers in Lee County.
Officials with Entergy say they're working as quickly as they can to get power restored. For some, it may be Monday morning before the lights are back on. Shelby Countians without power may have to wait up to a week!
“It was scary, kind of scary,” said South Memphis resident Jeff McCraney.
All across the Mid-South you can hear the sounds of chainsaws and linemen working trying to replace power poles and lines as quickly as they can. It's been a big boost for tree trimming businesses.
“Calls started coming in at yesterday at 5 o'clock,” said Tracy Clanton, who owns a tree-trimming business.
“I was hoping we'd have power, but we don't, so here I am,” McCraney said.
McCraney was happy to see the MLGW crews just outside his window the day after the storm. He says the storm hit his South Memphis neighborhood hard.
“A whole lot of wind, as you can see, I've cleaned up a bit. We had trees down. My backyard a tree fell down, because problems I think.”
Jerry Collins, President of MLGW said, “This is the biggest outage we've had as a result of a storm since Hurricane Elvis. This is a major undertaking. We have 130,000 homes and businesses without power. This is a major big deal.”
Like many left in the dark, McCraney is heading to a friend's house.
“I just took my bag of groceries to my friends' house to keep them for me until my power comes back on. That's what I'm hoping for, power!” McCraney yelled.
“It's much worse than we expected,” Collins said.
With power out in so many places, it means police have to direct traffic at busy intersections, and you might have to drive a bit further to get gas. Generators are keeping some stores open for business. A convenience store in Raleigh is keeping the ice cream cold by packing it in ice.
“It's going to be real busy for the next week or so,” Clanton said.
MLGW has 40 crews from across the state here helping to get everyone power.
There are reports that a few senior homes have been without power since Friday, June 12th, 2009, at 5pm; which can be very dangerous in this heat.
MLGW's President Collins says lineman are starting to work on areas with hospitals, nursing homes first and then spreading out to larger hit areas.
