HUNTSVILLE — As hundreds of people woke up this morning without electricity, the weather forecast said there is a chance for thunderstorms through Friday.
“We will remain in an active pattern the next three days, with chances for thunderstorms each day,” the National Weather Service’s Huntsville office said. “Some of these storms could be strong to severe.”
It was two rounds of severe storms – including an EF-0 tornado – that knocked out power Tuesday to thousands of people in North Alabama, including as many as 29,000 Huntsville Utilities customers and 12,000 Athens Utilities customers.
“As of 3:20 p.m., the total number of customers without power is about 1,000 (down from the peak of 29,000),” Huntsville Utilities said. “These outages impact small clusters of houses and are typically caused by downed power lines or tree limbs/debris on lines somewhere on the grid.
“Crews must ride out the grid to find and repair the damage. Because of that, we do not have estimated times of restoration for specific areas, but service will be restored as quickly as is safely possible.”
The utility also said it is being helped by crews from Albertville Municipal Utilities Board, Decatur Utilities, Sheffield Utilities, and Russellville Utilities. The latest report said there are still 15 poles to be replaced and 69 lines down.
“In addition to Huntsville Utilities Electric Operations crews, contract crews and crews from neighboring utilities have come to our service area to assist in restoration,” Huntsville Utilities said. “We are grateful for their assistance.”
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