MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tuesday’s severe storms ripped through parts of Memphis and while Memphis Light Gas and Water (MLGW) is working to get power back on to thousands of people, those same people also have to deal with the damage caused by high winds.
For one East Memphis family, the latest round of storms ended in a massive tree falling on their home, nearly splitting it in half.
“This is East Memphis; this is what you get living in East Memphis,” Adrian Script said. “Our power goes out all the time, just from storms and stuff like that; but nothing like this.”
The Script family was without power in a home that’s unlivable Wednesday.
Adrian Script recalls the moments the storms winds began to blow.
“The wind started blowing, we heard the glass shatter, and that’s when my mom left, it was wild,” Script said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
The high winds caused a tree to fall, splitting in half a portion of his home where Script says he usually sleeps.
“The tree coming in through our window into our kitchen and the tree that fell on our bedroom and into my mom and dad’s room and the bathroom started flooding,” Script said.
Lee Greene, who also lives in the area, near White Station Road and Poplar Avenue, is calling on MLGW to consider updating infrastructure.
“If you had power lines underground, you don’t have poles, you don’t have this mess over here,” Greene said. “Your pine trees fall, and they fall in the street, and someone comes and pick them up.”
To speed up the power restoration, MLGW brought in more than five dozen outside electric and tree crews from surrounding states.
MLGW President Doug McGowen said, at its peak, Tuesday’s lightning and gusty winds impacted over 130,000 customers.
McGowen said Wednesday it could be three days, possibly longer, until everyone is brought back online.