The lights came back on Tuesday (Feb. 8) for Orange Mound residents Melvin Raines and Marcia Walton. But the restoration blessing was preceded by several days of hardship as the family struggled to grapple with the effects of not having electricity.
The Raines and Walton household was among some 274,000 Memphis Light Gas and Water Division business and residential customers affected by the Feb. 3 ice storm. As of 9:05 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 9), 25,157 MLGW customers still were without power from 2,835, according to the utility’s website.
The website also said “Contract crews from Oklahoma, Virginia, Tennessee and Illinois are working side-by-side with MLGW teams around the clock to restore customers who remain without power following the third worst storm in recent Memphis history…”
Raines and Walton said as the electrical outage continued their house turned freezing cold.
“We really didn’t have any place to go,” said Raines. “Our car is down right now, anyway. We have small children we were trying to keep warm. I turned on the gas stove for heat, and we slept close to the kitchen.
“My girl lit candles for light, but I didn’t really sleep because I was watching the children. You hear about fires starting all the time with candles and stuff.”
Tuesday, Raines said their power had come back on about 2 a.m. He said many of his Orange Mound neighbors “toughed it out” at home.
“When you don’t have money to go to a hotel, that’s just how it is,” said Raines. “We had a few water bottles and some bread, so the kids had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“I walked to Church’s Chicken over on Park, but they were closed. I guess their power was out, too. I was hoping the whole Mound hadn’t lost power.”
Willie Mae Addison, who lives in the Scutterfield area of North Memphis, said her power stayed on until about 1 p.m. on Thursday (Feb. 3). She is a senior citizen, who lives along.
“I drive some, but not on ice,” said Addison. “I looked outside Thursday, and all I could see was tree branches and ice, going every which a way. I stayed in the house, mostly, wrapped up in the bed, trying to keep warm.
“I had a little charge on my phone until Saturday morning when it finally died. So, I just prayed for the power to come back on. It finally did Friday night about nine o’clock.”
For Raleigh residents James and Barbara Yates, the outage was more than an inconvenience. It became a matter of life and death.
“My husband’s cancer came back, and he has kidney failure,” said Barbara Yates. “Our power went out on Thursday (Feb. 3). Our son came and got us on Friday and took us to a hotel. I usually do my husband’s dialysis treatment at home, but it is very difficult without power.
“I called the doctor Friday evening, and he told me to get my husband to the hospital right away. That was scary because they said I should have called the doctor as soon as the power went off. A few hours longer, and dialysis wouldn’t have done any good, the doctor said.”
After dialysis was performed, her husband was brought back to the hotel by ambulance. They returned home Sunday (Feb. 6) morning when power was restored about noon.
According to the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, four deaths may have occurred last week due to the ice storm. An investigation to determine cause of those deaths is ongoing.
The storm also forced Memphis-Shelby County Schools to cancel classes because of power outages.
As Wednesday (Feb. 9), though, the school announced that the majority of schools were open, “but due to ongoing outages, Sharpe Elementary and Wells Station Elementary will be closed until further notice.”
MLGW President and CEO J.T. Young initially said the goal was to have power restored to nearly everyone by Thursday (Feb. 10). The goal now is to accomplish that goal by Friday (Feb. 11).
But clean-up of an estimated $15 million in property damage will take much longer.
Customers still out late Tuesday were asked to call MLGW and to report that power was still out. A representative said utility customers should not assume MLGW already knows there is no power in a residence or business.
Those still experiencing outage may call (901) 544-6549.
To see where outages remain, where crews are working and how many customers still are without power, go to: https://www.mlgw.com/home/ice-storm-update-dashboard-2022/
