MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Every time the wind blows or a drop of rain falls, Memphians say it seems like their power goes out.
Thursday was no exception with more than 10,000 Memphis Light, Gas and Water accounts without power. Each account can represent at least several people.
Power went out at the Bass Pro Pyramid, the Falls Building and much of downtown Thursday afternoon. Some people waited hours to get a response from the utility.
When a pole and power lines fell down near Linda Smeed’s home in the 2600 block of Douglass Avenue around 1 p.m. Thursday afternoon, she said she knew she was in trouble.
“It all went to black, and I could hear something that sounded like it was frying,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, Lord. Please not my computer! Please!”
When WREG saw her, it had been two and a half hours since she had called MLGW.
Memphis police were there, but there were no power crews in sight.
Gale Jones Carson with MLGW said crews were working hard to restore power to customers.
MLGW blames the weather, the city’s love for trees and fallen branches for constant outages.
“If you look at today and you look at last week, these outages are tied directly to storms, rain, which we have absolutely no control over,” Carson said.
However, Smeed said she wasn’t buying it.
“It’s not the trees,” she said, rolling her eyes. “They know they need to upgrade. If you’re adding and annexing and adding and annexing, you’re adding power for the people you’re annexing, but you’re not upgrading the people that have already been here.”
She said she is sick of not only sitting in the dark, but being kept in the dark. “As A C says, we’re in a crisis. I don’t know what that crisis means, but if it means not getting the people out here when we need service and our taxes steadily going up, I think that’s just wrong!”