Signal Mountain recovering from ice storm
A power pole that snapped in half following this weekend’s ice storm on Sawyer Road.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN, Tenn. (WDEF)- Many of our mountainous communities saw up to a half inch of ice accumulation over the weekend.
Signal Mountain was among them which saw damage and widespread power outages due to the storm.
Even with the sunshine returning on Monday, the remnants of this weekend’s ice storm were present all over Signal Mountain and Walden.
We saw numerous trees that fell due to the weight of the ice, leading to thousands of power outages.
At the height of the storm, over 7,000 EPB customers were in the dark.
As of Monday afternoon, that number fell to under 500.
One of the more dramatic scenes we came across was a broken power pole on Sawyer Road in Walden.
This kind of infrastructure damage EPB spokesperson Sophie Moore says is significant.
Moore said, “When you see something as severe as a broken power pole, that actually turns into a mini construction project. We’ve got to clear any vegetation that might be blocking it, we have to remove the pole. We have to make sure that the lines are de energized. We have to put in a new pole. So those projects can be very time-consuming, but they’re critically important to get our customers back online.”
We saw a crew fixing up this power pole on a different portion of Sawyer Road.
They were having to physically move vegetation off a power line to fix this outage, something EPB says is emblematic of repairing lines after an ice storm.
Moore said, “Every outage is different depending on the reason behind the outage. It could be a tree falling on a line. It could be a car breaking a pole. It could be vegetation that’s stuck in the infrastructure, but our teams are trained to handle all of that, and respond as fast as possible.”
EPB says the linemen will continue to work through the night in cold and windy conditions to restore all power as quickly as possible.
Moore said, “Being an a lineman is one of the most dangerous jobs. It’s a top 10 most dangerous job and we are so appreciative of our crews based here in Chattanooga and the crews that came from elsewhere to help us.
Travel along most roads has improved since the storm, however still be cautious of potential icy spots on side streets.
