Another 12 hours or so to restore power, Electric Department says

 

It could take another 12-13 hours to restore power across Oak Ridge after the severe Tuesday evening storms, the Oak Ridge Electric Department said on Twitter at roughly 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

That would presumably mean that some customers might not have electricity restored until sometime Wednesday morning.

The Electric Department said the storms knocked down many trees and limbs. Crews have responded to fallen trees, power outages, dangling utility lines, and other problems across town since the short, fierce storm ripped through Oak Ridge and Anderson County at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Electric Department warned residents to stay away from power lines on the ground.

At about 10 p.m. Tuesday, Oak Ridge workers were out cutting up trees and restoring power on Jefferson Avenue.  A few miles away off Pennsylvania Avenue, Plymouth Circle was blocked to traffic, and it appeared that there was a utility line on the road blocked by orange traffic cones.

It wasn’t clear how many homes in Oak Ridge had lost power, but on a short drive through north-central Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge Today found blocks of homes that appeared to be without power along Jefferson and Pennsylvania avenues, Outer Drive, and Wadsworth. There were still parts of some trees on some roads. There was also at least one report of the power being out in part of east Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge Today was not immediately able to contact the Oak Ridge Electric Department Tuesday night.

More information will be added as it becomes available.