An Oak Ridge Electric Department crew works late into the night after a violent storm Thursday. Above from right are ORED Crew Chief Aaron England, lineman Tom Lance, and apprentice lineman Mike Goodpasture.
All power has been restored, the Oak Ridge Electric Department reported about midnight Thursday, roughly six hours after violent storms roared through East Tennessee, causing widespread damage and power outages, and trapping visitors in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
In Oak Ridge, the city staff reported outages in Rarity Ridge and on Berwick Drive, Bear Creek and Berea roads, Warwick and Hoyt lanes, and Andover, Iris, and East Wadsworth circles.
Residents reported outages in other locations from West Outer Drive and Montana Avenue to Grove Center and Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Officials in the Oak Ridge Electric Department said they didn’t know how many customers lost power Thursday.
But a few hours after the storm, by 10:30 p.m., the Electric Department reported that only a few scattered small outages remained, and most, if not all of those, were due to fallen trees or branches.
Oak Ridge Electric Department crews had to remove a tree limb that had fallen into power lines on South Purdue Avenue.
In Woodland around midnight, a three-man crew cut down a Bradford Pear tree limb that had fallen into a power line on South Purdue Avenue. Crew members had been working non-stop since about 6 p.m., when the ferocious storms blew south from the Ohio River Valley, bringing 70-mph winds and knocking out power to tens of thousands of customers in East Tennessee.
The city provided updates during the storm on Twitter. That Twitter feed is available at https://twitter.com/#!/corelectricdept.
Meanwhile, officials at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park confirmed that two people died during the storms.
C.A. Schulman says
Excellent story and thank you for the unexpected inclusion on a picture of the crew who did the electrical work! That was a good thing. Those men doen’t get recognition of a viable sort…only words saying the power was restored. Thanks for going a step farther.
John Huotari says
You’re welcome.
Ellen Smith says
I was also tickled to see the photo of the crew. Too often, those guys are unsung heroes!
Angi Agle says
I, too, was glad to see the hands-on folks recognized. Our power was only out for about an hour, which is far better than most of the surrounding communities. I really appreciate these guys!
John Huotari says
It appears we escaped the storm with far less damage than other nearby communities, and I’m sure the guys appreciated that.
C.A. Schulman says
I say again that you have a quality publication.
John Huotari says
Thank you.
Margaret Elgin says
Thanks for putting the picture of the linemen up, John. It is so nice to see them recognized. Also, thank you for putting up our twitter link. It is a new tool we are using to communicate our progress during the outages. We hope to reach more customers with it in the future.
John Huotari says
You’re welcome, Margaret. I enjoyed talking to the linemen. I didn’t know about the Twitter account until I talked to Jack on Thursday. I’ll try to keep an eye on it next time.