KNOXVILLE, Tenn., April 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --
As of 8 a.m. EDT; Saturday, 4/30/11
- TVA crews made great progress overnight restoring the transmission system.
- 29 transmission lines have been returned to service, of the more than 90 originally out of service, and power has been restored to more than half of the connections between TVA and its distributor customers.
- We estimate 490,000 homes and businesses are without electric service in 51 distributor service areas.
- Based on our current assessments, we anticipate restoring service to a majority of local distributor and directly served large customers by early next week. Our initial focus is to restore distributors' critical loads, such as medical facilities and water pumping stations.
- About 4,000 TVA employees and contractors are working 24/7 to get the power restored.
- More than 200 poles or steel structures were damaged in the storms, resulting in more than 90 large transmission lines being out of service, including a large portion of the 500-kilovolt and 161-kilovolt lines serving North Alabama and Mississippi.
- As crews continue damage assessments, and customers' power is restored, these numbers will continue to change.
- TVA urges caution when near downed power lines and requests that you call your local power company or emergency officials before you get near trees fallen on lines or lines lying on the ground.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100304/TVALOGO )
SOURCE Tennessee Valley Authority
