The storm that blew through in the early morning hours Wednesday left approximately 7,300 TVEPA members in Panola county without power.

Tate, Yalobusha, and Tallahatchie counties were also affected by this storm and TVEPA had members without power in these parts of the service area.  The City of Batesville and Panola County, however, were the hardest hit.  Once those crews from Tallahatchie and Yalobusha Counties  finished with their restoration efforts, they were brought into the city of Batesville and Panola county to assist in the work here. The vast majority of the outages were restored by midnight Wednesday, restoration is on-going.

 “The storm blew down numerous  large trees which in turn tore down the lines and broke many of our power poles,  TVEPA General Manager Brad Robison said.

“In many cases, the debris had to be cleared by our right of way crews before construction crews could come in and rebuild the lines.  Unfortunately, this was very time consuming.

“I want to thank all of our TVEPA workers whom worked diligently  to restore electricity to our members,” Robison contined. “This includes the many employees whom helped us answer the almost 4,000 calls from our concerned members.  We are all blessed that no one was seriously injured in this storm.

“We regret the length of the outage for some of our members, but when the significant damage was fully accessed, it is easier to see why it was so time consuming,” the TVEPA general manager said. “I would also like to thank our many members whom called, emailed, or dropped off food for our workers.  Thank you for your patience and kind words during this difficult time. “