NALGW linemen worked through the night trying to keep the power on

Linemen for New Albany Lights, Gas, and Water (NALGW) worked all night in the rain and lightning, trying to keep lights on in the sprawling service area.

The storm had caused scattered and isolated power outages early Tuesday evening.

The situation got radically worse about 10 p.m. when NALGW Manager Bill Mattox got a phone call from TVA headquarters in Chattanooga.

“They told me they had major problems with their TVA transmission lines that bring all the electricity to New Albany,” said Mattox. “We immediately lost power to several of our substations, and up to 60 percent of our customers may have been without power for a little more than an hour.’’

Mattox did not know as of Wednesday evening what had caused the TVA lines to fail Tuesday night. He said such transmission line failures sometime take more than three hours to repair, so was relieved that NALGW crews were able to work with TVA and get some substations back on line before midnight.

NALGW crews continued to work on scattered reports of power lines down and making sure the substations continued to be supplied by TVA’s transmission lines.

About 3 a.m., crews thought the storm was about over and got ready to wrap up for the night.

Then, about 3 o’clock the storm felled a big pine tree over power lines near the Stokes Store on Highway 15. The falling tree broke down the power lines strung to seven utility poles, causing another power failure for hundreds of customers served by those broken lines.

After having worked all day and all night, the NALGW linemen then worked until about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday restoring power to that part of the service area.

Joe Wilson tells us last night’s storm delivered about three inches of rain to his gauge in north New Albany.

Union County Emergency Management Director Curt Clayton told NEMiss.News he was not aware of any injuries or major damage “other than a few trees down” in Union County.

Northeast Mississippi was more fortunate than other places in the Southeastern U.S. Two people were reported killed when the storm struck their home near Montgomery, Alabama.

More than 40,000 customers were still without electricity late in the day Wednesday including 25,000 in Alabama, 12,000 in Tennessee and 4,000 in Mississippi.

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