Power outage restoration continues

Huntsville Utilities is reporting that nearly 10,000 customers are still without power due to the severe weather event that passed through the area last night.

At one point during the storm, over 20,000 customers were without power. At 6 a.m., this number was down to 11,000.

The number increased back up to around 15,000 when customers starting waking up and reporting outages. The number has now decreased to nearly 10,000.

The company said that many of the outages are isolated which will pick up only a few customers for each repair and increase the amount of time it takes to get to everyone and complete the restoration effort.

The storm caused a significant amount of damage due to trees coming down, tree limbs in power lines and a large number of lightning-related incidents. Crews have worked throughout the night and will continue to assess and repair damage.

Currently Huntsville Utilities has 23 teams working locating and repairing damage. Nearly half of the substations have customers experiencing power outages.

There are a large number of customers with outages related only to their service or theirs and a few neighbors. Huntsville Utilities urges all customers without power to call the automated outage reporting phone line to expedite location of repairs. The number is 256-53LIGHT (535-4448).

Without proper notification in the storm outage system, the company may not be aware of many smaller outages.

Weather events such as that experienced overnight can be devastating to electric systems. Huntsville Utilities is dedicated to restoring the power in the most efficient, reliable manner.  Crews will remain in the field working to restore power throughout the day into the evening if necessary.