MEMPHIS, Tenn. — While a lot of people are trying to be in good spirits, it is hard to ignore the toll MLGW’s constant outages have been taking on Shelby County. Beyond the power outages, residents are also cleaning up storm debris.
“It didn’t take no time for it to break that branch,” said Christopher Bray.
It has been days since lights were on in Bray’s Berclair neighborhood. July 18th’s Rush Hour storm destroyed trees, power lines and Bray’s car.
“It’s hot, I need my transportation and I’m praying that insurance will cover it,” said Bray.
Over in Frayser, Linda Perkins is staying at the Pursuit of God Church. The Memphian is still in the dark after she said MLGW was supposed to have her lights back on Wednesday afternoon.
“I had just went grocery shopping and bought a ton of grocery, and it’s all gone again,” said Perkins.
While most of the 140,000 impacted MLGW customers have their lights back on, there are still several neighborhoods that are in the dark. In a news conference Thursday, MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowen said these outages are in six clusters, including Berclair, Frayser, Germantown, Hickory Hill, East Memphis and Raleigh.
“If you’re looking for crews they will probably be in those areas, our priority is to work on the circuits that are still remaining out,” said McGowen.
McGowen said the utility is trying to catch up on updating the decades old infrastructure, however the rounds of severe weather are delaying the replacement of outdated equipment.
“When they are putting in infrastructure to make it more reliable, when a storm happens they have to be pulled off of that work to go do storm restoration,” said McGowen.
MLGW said the past year and a half has seen 800,000 customers impacted by major storm outages. The same amount of customers were impacted between 2012 and 2022. This has Memphians worried about how much more Shelby County can take.
“I’ve seen it happen once every year or something, but to this magnitude where it's happening once every week, power outages because of a storm, it’s putting a burden on the people,” said Perkins.
If you are struggling with any down limbs out of MLGW’s control or replacing food you lost from the outages, McGowen asks customers to call 211. The Memphis Public Library will guide callers through the next steps.