News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
UCEMC is reporting that approxitmately 11,000 customers are without power in Putnam County.
Mayor Randy Porter said it is a long list of areas affected by outages. Porter said the county was not able to get a time frame of the areas affected and said residents should be prepared for extended outages due to tree damage.
“They would get one tree cut off and the power back up and there’d be one ten minutes later fall behind them,” Porter said. “I think in the middle of the night last night, they kind of had to just stop and let everything break and go down that was going to.”
Porter said that electric crews will focus on restoring power to areas where the most residents can come online at once. Porter said that residents without power should reach out to family with power, or consider a plan to use hotels and motels or county shelters.
“Meters have been pulled away from the homes with the trees falling in the yards,” Porter said. “Those will be the last ones that will be repaired. They’ll be trying to bring on the largest number of customers on the lines to start with.”
He asked residents to please use electric provider call centers to check on power outages. He said most providers even have maps online where residents can see if their outage has been reported.
“Please do not call 911 or dispatch centers,” Porter said. “Because you’re hampering people from getting through or being taken care of that may have an actual emergency with an illness or injury.”
Large outages that are being reported include:
Buck/Brotherton Mountain, Algood, Baxter, Bangham/North of Cookeville, Quinland Lake, Highway 111 area, Gainesboro Grade, Silverpoint, Poplar Grove. However, this is not all inclusive.
Crews are focusing on the Buck/Brotherton Mountain, Algood, Baxter and the Highway 111/Fisk Road/Quinland Lake Road areas. These areas are expected to bring back up a large number of customers at one time, when restored.
