By Shannon McFarlin WENK/WTPR News Director
Paris, Tenn.–Four outside crews are assisting the Paris Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in the arduous job of restoring power to all of its customers following Friday night’s strong storm which felled trees and power lines and blocked roads.
BPU General Manager Terry Wimberley told WENK/WTPR around 5 p.m. that some 1,466 customers were still without power. “The problem is that the outages are scattered over 95 separate outages that we’re working on,” he said.
All of the BPU crew is on duty, with several participants in the annual Linemen’s Rodeo also called home last night during the storm. This year the Linemen’s Rodeo was held in Lenoir City and other utility companies which were hit by storms called their participants back home, too.
“Our immediate priority is what’s happening back at home,” Wimberley said.
In addition to all of the BPU crews, a utility crew from Covington, Tenn., is assisting locally, as are crews from Service Electric, which was already helping to relocate the lines along the construction project on Hwy. 641N.
The BPU crews have been working without rest since last night and will be needing to get some rest tonight, Wimberley said. “We hope our customers will understand that we need to address the fatigue of our employees and we’ll have to stop work tonight and we’ll start back up again bright and early Sunday morning. So, we can’t promise that everyone will have their power back on tonight.”
Photo: BPU still at work on Wynn Street in Paris Saturday evening. Workers were repairing damage caused when a tree fell on power lines. (Shannon McFarlin photo).
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