MEMPHIS, Tenn. —
The Memphis Light Gas and Water power outage has affected many in the Mid-South, including Airbnb customers.
MLGW CEO Doug McGowen held a press conference today assuring customers in Shelby County that thousands of people still in the dark will have their lights and air conditioning back on soon, but about 18,000 customers are without power as of 6:30 p.m. Thursday since Sunday night.
They have been dealing with Memphis's first heat wave of the summer, waiting for the moment when one of the 117 crews working around the clock will turn their power back on.
The outages have affected homeowners, business owners and even Airbnbs in the Memphis area.
"It's hot back home in Louisiana, but this some different heat,” Deaquon Dennis, who was visiting Memphis for work, said.
Dennis and four others were staying in a Bartlett Airbnb when Sunday's storms hit.
"The two guys that I work with are like chefs, besides commercial painters," Dennis said. “So they're buying expensive crab legs, all the shrimps for gumbos and all the straight raw meats, you know, they're straight raw meat. So, when the power kind of took the food, it kind of hurt us really bad, it did."
Dennis described when the storm touched down.
"Then we just start seeing like clouds coming in and debris just flying all over the streets,” Dennis said.
It left them without power and spoiled the food supply they bought for their two-month work stay.
“We're on day five of the power being out,” Memphis Airbnb owner Karen Jolly said.
Jolly also said her entire Bartlett neighborhood is still without power.
“You never know a person's situation unless you're actually in it,” Jolly said. "I would say to MLG and W to just to please just consider whatever type of infrastructure improvements you need to make, go ahead make those improvements."
Jolly said MLGW gave her a deadline of Wednesday afternoon to complete repairs, but she was still without power nearly twenty-four hours later.
Watchdog groups said this could've been prevented.
"They said it themselves. 60% of their outages, more or less, are due to what the contractor did not do,” Ray Bauer, the cofounder of 21St Century or Bust, said. “Which is why we are begging MLGW to bring tree trimming back in-house so there's better quality control."