UPDATE: Gibson EMC says power restored following ice storm

UPDATE: As of 6:10 p.m., Gibson EMC says all power has been restored.

“We sincerely appreciate our members’ patience and understanding as we have worked to restore electric and fiber service,” said Dan Rodamaker, President and CEO.  “We’re hoping there will be no new outages, but if the melting causes tree branches to strike our lines, we will be ready to get to work again.

EARLIER STORY:

JACKSON, Tenn. — On Thursday, thousands of people were without power due to inclement weather.

Now, a day later, less than 100 people still need service.

“We don’t know at this time. It’s still too early to figure out if we’ll get power restored to everyone today, but we’re working toward that end and we’ll keep our members up-to-date on our progress throughout the day,” said Rita Alexander, the Vice President of Human Resources for Gibson Electric Membership Corporation.

Gibson EMC is working diligently to restore everyone’s power, bringing in different electric companies to get the work done faster.

“Those from the northern half of our service area to the crews in the southern half of our service area, and we also have Pickwick Electric crews helping us and our contractor service electric crew helping us,” Alexander said.

Fallen limbs or whole trees have also been the cause of many outages.

When they freeze they are more likely to fall over, causing damage to power lines and roofs, or cluttering your yard.

“People shouldn’t wait until an ice storm. They should keep an eye on their trees and maybe do something about it before a tornado or an ice storm comes through,” said Brock Davis, Co-owner of Davis Brother Tree Care Inc.

With below freezing temperatures, it’s best to wait until all ice is melted off of a tree before cleaning up the limbs in your yard.

“What you don’t want is to be out in the yard cleaning up limbs and stuff like that while other limbs have the potential of coming down. So wait a day or two. Wait for the ice to get off of the trees, then begin the yard cleanup, but only after the ice dissipates,” Sam Spence, a Certified Arborist for Delta Tree Service.

For larger limbs or limbs on top of the roof, tree experts are asking you to call a professional rather than handling the limb yourself.

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