MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Thursday evening, Memphis Light Gas and Water (MLGW) held one of its regular Power Hour community meetings in Frayser at the Pursuit of God Transformation Church.
It comes amid the latest power outage crisis to hit the Mid-South.
MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowen and District 7 Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas were there to answer questions and show the community everything they are doing to restore power.
“Ms. Mary Stewart is 82 years old,” one woman said during the public comment portion. “She sat in the dark for four days.”
“How long will it be getting (the power) up?” asked Regenia Dowell. “A day? Two days? Five days?”
The meeting was originally scheduled to take place at the Ed Rice Community Center. It moved to the church because, as of Thursday morning, the community center still didn’t have power.
Dowell says her home is only at half the power, which means no air conditioning.
“I can't wash, I can't run the central air or anything like that,” she said. “So you know, it's been very, very hot these last few days. But I thank God for the blessing in that we do have our ceiling fans.”
Darlene Jenifer says this is the second time in a month that she has spent days with no electricity.
“The first time, I had storm damage and a power outage for four days,” she said. “The second time, which is present, my power has been off since Tuesday evening.”
McGowen outlined his long-term plans for improving the infrastructure and large-scale tree trimming. But with falling trees accounting for 63 percent of outages in 2023, per MLGW, Jenifer wants to know what can be done now.
“The trees that I have over my home, I am a home owner and I live in Raleigh,” she said during public comment. “It’s going to be $3,000 to $4,000.”
McGowen says Memphians have every right to demand answers.
“I would characterize them as very reasonable questions,” he said afterwards. “People should have a reasonable expectation that their power is reliable…and we have work to do.”
McGowen spent time before and after the question-and-answer session talking with people one-on-one.
The meeting also featured members of the MLGW call center, outlining their plan to improve response times.