MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Marshall County couple has watched anxiously for over a week while waiting for utility crews to restore power to their home in the Lamar community off Highway 72.
Lewis and Suellen Elliott lost power eight days ago and both said their home has been almost unlivable.
The utility cavalry arrived on Early Grove Road in Lamar, Mississippi on Thursday afternoon, not a moment too soon for Suellen and Lewis.
Suellen is recovering from colon cancer and has been depending on her husband to change bandages on her surgical scars in the dark.
“Being able to change her bandages, even in the daytime, it’s dark in the house without lights on and it’s very difficult to do,” Lewis said.
The Elliotts lost power on Wednesday, April 13, when a severe storm brought down a power pole and lines that run through a neighbor’s farmland and to the Elliott’s house.
“It feeds his barn and our house and the ‘fix’ would be to put a new pole up and string the wires back, and I think everything would fine,” Lewis said.
That’s what crews from the Holly Springs Utility District and MLGW were tackling Thursday afternoon.
When the pole and wires are replaced, the Elliotts will have electricity to draw water from their well, and Lewis won’t have to continually maneuver through a dark basement to fill containers from a 500 gallon storage tank.
It also means the simple necessities of life will finally return.
“So, we had to go to Home Depot and get buckets so that we can sit on these buckets so we can use the bathroom and throw it out. You know, like 1910 days,” Lewis said.
And if these crews work quickly, Suellen won’t have to make good on her threat to leave.
“Today was my last day here. I was going to get me a motel room. I’ve had enough. I’m done,” Suellen said.
Benton County supervisors asked Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley to launch a regulatory review of the service provided by the Holly Springs utility district.
Presley held a press conference just yesterday, calling the utility’s response to last week’s severe weather “unacceptable”.