FAST FACTS:
Final tens of thousands of powerless customers always the hardest to bring online says MLGW head More than 100,000 customers have had power restored since Friday's storms MLGW hopes to have power back up and running to all by the weekend
( Memphis, 6/15/2009) Half dressed and heated Joe Duckworth is lashing out at MLGW after sweating through three days and counting without power in his Uptown apartment.
"I'm frustrated because of the heat. it seems like they're (expletive) around. Everyone is paid to be on the clock but it seems like they're milking the clock."
MLGW says that's not the case. They tell us 800 people are in the field working to get electricity to everyone. We spotted one truck pull up next door to Duckworth's apartment, but it wasn't long before it pulled off.
The head of MLGW says power has been restored to more than 100-thousand customers since Friday's tornadoes and straight line winds downed utility polls and made a mangled mess of power lines.
"I'm hot and frustrated," snaps Tracy Horton.
She spends her evenings on the porch of her Uptown home trying to cool off with her three kids.
"Can you see the sweat popping off my face? It's because I'm hot and don't have electricity."
Horton may have to sweat a little longer. The head of MLGW, Jerry Collins, says it's the final few thousands of homes that are always toughest to power up.
"The biggest difficulty is many small isolated outages are affecting a few customers which are the slowest kind to get back up and running."
That's a little hard to stomach for Danette Crichton. Friday she spent 600-dollars on groceries before the power went out. She had to trash most of them because without power her groceries went to waste.
"Making people wait and suffer this long is ridiculous," exclaimed Crichton
MLGW hopes to have all power back up and running by this weekend. Mayor Wharton is considering opening community centers for elderly people.
Final tens of thousands of powerless customers always the hardest to bring online says MLGW head More than 100,000 customers have had power restored since Friday's storms MLGW hopes to have power back up and running to all by the weekend
( Memphis, 6/15/2009) Half dressed and heated Joe Duckworth is lashing out at MLGW after sweating through three days and counting without power in his Uptown apartment.
"I'm frustrated because of the heat. it seems like they're (expletive) around. Everyone is paid to be on the clock but it seems like they're milking the clock."
MLGW says that's not the case. They tell us 800 people are in the field working to get electricity to everyone. We spotted one truck pull up next door to Duckworth's apartment, but it wasn't long before it pulled off.
The head of MLGW says power has been restored to more than 100-thousand customers since Friday's tornadoes and straight line winds downed utility polls and made a mangled mess of power lines.
"I'm hot and frustrated," snaps Tracy Horton.
She spends her evenings on the porch of her Uptown home trying to cool off with her three kids.
"Can you see the sweat popping off my face? It's because I'm hot and don't have electricity."
Horton may have to sweat a little longer. The head of MLGW, Jerry Collins, says it's the final few thousands of homes that are always toughest to power up.
"The biggest difficulty is many small isolated outages are affecting a few customers which are the slowest kind to get back up and running."
That's a little hard to stomach for Danette Crichton. Friday she spent 600-dollars on groceries before the power went out. She had to trash most of them because without power her groceries went to waste.
"Making people wait and suffer this long is ridiculous," exclaimed Crichton
MLGW hopes to have all power back up and running by this weekend. Mayor Wharton is considering opening community centers for elderly people.
