Chattanooga Area Electric System Severely Damaged

Update, 4:32pm — Since early this morning, EPB has restored power to about 17,000 customers with as many as 43,000 continuing to experience outages as of 4:30 p.m. There are now about 115 crews with about 380 people working to restore power for people in the Chattanooga area.

“We’ve added crews throughout the day, and we’ll have people working through the night to speed the effort,” Marston said. “Unfortunately, the damage is so extensive it is necessary to re-construct large portions of the electric system in the areas that were hardest hit. Some more people will have power restored today, some will have it back on in the next few days, and we’re hoping to have complete restoration in the next 7 to 10 days.”

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Chattanooga, TN – The severe weather that ripped through the Chattanooga area overnight caused catastrophic damage to portions of the EPB electric system. As many as 50,000 customers remain without power as of 11:30 a.m.

Between EPB’s regular crews and mutual aid crews from surrounding areas that have joined the effort, there are now about 90 crews with some 300 people working to restore power for people in the Chattanooga area.

“We are doing everything we can to get power back on to our customers as quickly as possible,” said EPB spokesperson J.Ed. Marston.  “Some people will have power restored today, some will have it back on in the next few days and we’re hoping to have complete restoration in the next 7 to 10 days”

EPB was ready to respond based on weather reports and deployed crews to begin repairs as soon as damage began occurring on Sunday.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who suffered lasting impacts from the storms last night,” said Marston. “We’re doing everything we can to complete the power restoration as quickly as possible.  We have damage at one of our substations, multiple poles and lines are down and we’re still working to assess the damage in areas that is so extensive that we can’t get there yet because they are blocked by debris.”

EPB asks that people please stay away from any downed power lines and damaged equipment.