Power outage causes several businesses to temporarily shut doors

JACKSON, Tenn. — Crews work to repair downed power lines Monday afternoon after the unexpected happens.

“I was like, ‘What is going on?’ so I went in and they said, ‘Well the power is out.'”

Mary Beth Kennedy was just one customer turned away at the Vann Drive shopping center after a tree fell on a breaker behind the Hollywood 16 movie theater.

“I guess we’re going to have to find somewhere else with power,” she said.

Jackson Energy Authority officials say they got the call just before 3:30.

Brandon Fesmire with JEA says they had to cut the tree down before they could start repairing the power lines.

“We had no wind, no nothing,” he said. “Sometimes these trees just give up and they fall.”

Those in the theater say they were watching a movie, when all of a sudden everything went dark.

“The lights flickered and then the emergency lights came on,” Britany Smith said.

Smith was in the theater with her three kids when it happened. She describes the moments after as frightening.

“So of course we’re all looking around like something happening and wondering what is going on,” she said.

JEA officials say the outage affected stores along Vann Drive all the way to Carriage House Drive.

But with the power now restored, it is business as usual.

Business owners say power started coming back on in their stores within a few hours.

It is uncertain how many customers were actually affected by the outage.