January is reportedly the worst month so far in regards to outages in the last 10 years, according to Greeneville Energy Authority CEO and President Chuck Bowlin.
Over 4,000 GEA customers were without power from January 12th through the 15th, although power was restored to almost half of those within an hour. It was all caused by the wind storm that came through Greene County with 70+ mph winds, resulting in schools closing early and the roof coming off of porches. A wind gust of 85 miles per hour was recorded at Camp Creek.
According to GEA Operations Manager Dwayne Wells, the month of December was really good as there weren’t many outages but for January it’s another story.
Bowlin said December was the best and January was the worst month for outages in the last 10 years. He said this month’s windstorm is the biggest and largest event since the tornadoes.
Wells added 24 poles were broken during the storm. Crews were working overtime for days with help from other utilities that were kind enough to help GEA during the storm, as well as tree trimming men, and engineers.
