MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Additional outside crews are expected Friday to assist MLGW and city of Memphis crews to restore power to tens of thousands of affected customers who are in the dark following Thursday's ice storm.
It's expected some customers will not have their power back on until the weekend.
Those with MLGW said the utility company has deployed 17 troubleshooters, 33 tree trimmers and six in-house contractor crews, along with 14 additional outside crews expected Friday.
City of Memphis public works crews are also treating bridges and overpasses and Director Robert Knecht said most slick issues Thursday morning happened in the northern section of the city.
City crews also responded to 110 calls for downed trees in the public right of way as of noon Thursday.
The city will also activate contractors and shift crews from other departments to assist MLGW in dealing with downed trees.
Gale Jones Carson with MLGW said the restoration is expected to take several days.
"It is not going to be restored quickly, I can assure you of that - not because we can't, not that we don't want it to be restored quickly, but it's just going to be a little more difficult because of the ice, other safety protocols that our crews have to follow to be safe. It's just going to take a little longer," Jones Carson said.
Those with the city reminded the public avoid being outside if possible as falling limbs and trees remains a concern.
You are asked to call 901-528-4465 to report downed power lines and those with MLGW reminded public to report outages and not assume all outages are known.