MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A family is left with nowhere to turn but to MLGW as they brace for more than 24 hours without power. Reanda McGlothlin works hard to keep her family afloat as parts of Memphis remain in the dark and her family’s food is going bad.
“We’ve lost everything in our fridge because our power’s been out since about 6:30pm last night,” McGlothlin said.
Reanda and her son, Liam Mckibbin, say their home is so hot, it’s almost cooler to stay outside. This puzzling her and her kids as to why MLGW can’t seem to get the power back on quickly.
“My main concern is I’ve lived in a lot of states,” McGlothlin said. “I’ve lived in other countries ever since I was a little girl. I have been with a tornado going over me in Michigan and not have lost power for more than a couple of hours.”
Not only did this storm impact MLGW’s ability to provide power, but even on a regular basis this family is dealing with shortfalls with the power company.
“Our power will go off for a couple hours – come back on,” she said. “It’ll flicker all the time and its just become to the point where you can’t really plan on doing anything because you don’t know if your power’s gonna go out.”
One of her son’s has to go to summer learning academy and that’s been their only relief today, giving him air conditioning and a meal. However, Reanda urges the need for MLGW to fix the inconsistency because it’s a slippery slope when parents are dealing with power, food and financial struggles.
“If you have somebody that has to choose between gas and feeding their kids and all of a sudden all of their food is gone - they ain’t goin’ to work, they can’t afford to. I mean somethings gotta give and it may seem like electricity should be insubstantial, but it all plays into itself.”
While power outages aren’t new to Memphis, they’re always a strain on the people who live here. If you don’t have power, some churches and cooling centers have kept their doors open across the city for community members to cool down and charge up.