Overnight storms damage homes, knock out power across West Tennessee

JACKSON, Tenn. — Strong overnight storms left a trail of damage across West Tennessee. Crews have been working since the early morning hours to restore electricity and clear debris.

Last night’s storms roared through West Tennessee with powerful straight-line winds, lightning, and showers. By sunrise, the cleanup was already underway.

For Jackson resident Enrique Jimenez, the storm hit around 2 a.m. A falling tree knocked the power line connected to his house, causing damage to the home’s frame.

“It was actually, like, last night, like around 2 in the morning or so, everybody was in bed. I was sleeping in bed, and all of a sudden, we just hear these strong winds, you know, of course, I’m sleeping with my fiancée, throw myself on top of her, make sure, you know, I’m thinking something’s about to come through those windows,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez’s home wasn’t the only one impacted. Nearby homes also had damage.

“I come out, it’s still going on, going forward. There’s still trees, very strong winds and everything. Power is out on some of the houses and stuff, of course, as you can see, there’s damage on my house,” Jimenez said.

Power restoration underway

There was a big wave of high winds that got up to 60 mph, which caused damage across the region.

“So around 1:30 a.m. when the burst kind of came through, we had about 5,400 people that were out and then we ended up with about 3,300 that were actually out,” said Leslie Jones, Jackson Energy Authority’s Vice President of Operations.

As of 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, JEA reduced the number to about 400 customers without power.

Crews are hard at work to restore power to several traffic lights across the region.

Jackson Police say officers responded to multiple reports of trees and power lines blocking roads overnight, including Bent Oaks Drive, Henderson Road north of Ridgecrest, and more. In some areas, high-voltage lines were left hanging over roadways, forcing lane closures.

“So, out on F.E. Wright just north of Ridgecrest took the brunt of it for our system. I know we had two 46 KB poles that were down out there and two 12 poles that were down out there as well,” said Jones.

Regional damage

Gibson County also saw outages with over 1,400 customers without power. The storm also hit businesses hard. At Ascend Transportation along Highway 70, strong winds flipped two trailers, knocked down trees, and damaged fencing.

In Dyer County, the roof of an auto parts factory was reportedly blown off a building. Despite the damage, witnesses say everyone inside made it to safety.

Jimenez says Jackson residents are starting to clean up the mess and help each other.

“Working together to get some power lines out. Of course, we’re also helping other people out in the area with roofing, tree cleaning and everything that needs to be done to help the community out. We are seeing what we can do to help people out,” Jimenez said.

With possible weaker storms tonight, crews say the work is far from over, and they’re asking the public to stay patient as they continue making repairs across the region.

Officials say if you see downed power lines, stay back and report them immediately.