Traffic lights and power out - much longer? (Memphis, Germantown: loan, houses)

[bjh]

I'm a little surprised that many traffic lights are still out. Even worse for those affected, there are still houses without power.

How long did do you think it'll really take them to get everything back up and running?

[ColliervilleMom]

We lost for about 22 hours, just got it back an hour ago.

[UofMGrad92]

After a similar storm in 2003 (higher winds (100 MPH vs 80 MPH this time) but maybe a bit less widespread damage), it was around a month before some folks got power back. Hopefully it won't be as long this time as the damage seems to be a bit less severe.

My power didn't go out for long this time, but in 2003 it was out for a couple of days I thought I was grateful it was only that long. Amazing what a short storm like that can do. Makes you wonder how any place can survive a hurricane where winds like that and stronger go on for hours.

[bjh]

Originally Posted by UofMGrad92

After a similar storm in 2003 (higher winds (100 MPH vs 80 MPH this time) but maybe a bit less widespread damage), it was around a month before some folks got power back. Hopefully it won't be as long this time as the damage seems to be a bit less severe.

My power didn't go out for long this time, but in 2003 it was out for a couple of days I thought I was grateful it was only that long. Amazing what a short storm like that can do. Makes you wonder how any place can survive a hurricane where winds like that and stronger go on for hours.

Was that so-called hurricane Elvis?

[Ginsaw]

We are in the same mess. Middle of east Memphis. It's always our side of the street that gets it for some reason. Odd thing is no real bad winds and only light rain. But no power since late Fri afternoon. We went to dinner at Mimi's last night at 70 and Appling and saw nearly every light out. Fortunately folks were using their heads and the traffic was getting along OK. We saw tremendous tree damage the whole way and many large areas were dark. One streetlight was even hanging upside down. And that yellow sky in the north...something, wasn't it?

If I were a betting person, I'd say about 4 days on this one for our street. However, family in Germantown got theirs back this Sat morning.

I remember the Straight Line Windstorm (Hurricane Elvis). the tornado that damaged southeast Memphis and the Great Ice Storm. If those are 10s this one I'd rank about a 6 or 7.

This time however we got lucky. A friend who has power at his place loaned us his portable gas generator, so now at least we have the refrigerator/freezer, cable TV and a large fan working. We are definitely planning on buying one of those...worth their weight in gold at times like this.

[JoeCartpath]

Just saw on the news that it may be several days before everyone has power back...

[bjh]

I saw that yellow sky. That was something else. Reminds me of the saying, red sky at night sailor's delight, red sky at morning sailors take warning. Don't know of any rhyme about a yellow sky after a thunderstorm.

[JohnHiattFan]

I remember when we had whale oil lamps and plowed the cotton fields with mules. HTFU!

[bjh]

Well let's see.

Day------------- People without power
Friday -----------125k
Saturday ---------85k
Sunday ----------42k

They're making progress.

[JoeCartpath]

The progress gets slower as time goes on. At first they're fixing the problems that cause large scale outages affecting lots of people, then work there way down to those affecting fewer people. At the end, they are down to fixing outages that only affect one or two households.