MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – Sunday marked the fourth day thousands of people have been without power across Memphis.
Although many people have been patient, as the hours tick by and temperatures fall below freezing during the night, that patience is wearing thin.
Patricia Gatlin is one of the nearly 80,000 customers who has been without power for four days.
She says she feels like she’s been forgotten.
“We went out Thursday morning before nine o’clock and we haven’t seen anyone in our neighborhood yet,” said Gatlin. “Not one [MLGW] truck.”
Gatlin says she has spent the last few days caring for her 83-year-old mother, who lives a few doors down and is also without power.
With overnight temperatures dipping blowing freezing, she dresses in layers to stay warm.
She also makes several trips to her car throughout the day to warm up.
“I come out here at least 15 times in one day because it gets so cold that the crown of my head hurts, and my chest starts hurting,” said Gatlin.
MLGW leaders say they understand the frustration many of their customers are feeling.
“It is very understandable customers are frustrated and just don’t have a whole lot of patience left,” said J.T. Young, the president and CEO of MLGW. “I know it’s tough to deal with that, but we are doing what we can based on the circumstances we’ve been given to make sure everyone stays safe and gets customers back on as quickly as possible.”
Gatlin says she believes MLGW should’ve been better prepared and should have learned from previous storms like the ice storm of 1994.
“This one was nowhere near as bad as the ‘94 [storm] but we’re suffering the same consequences,” said Gatlin. “So what have we learned as a city?”
Gatlin says previous outages have shown the houses that lose power on her street, Harvey Road near the I-40 flyover, are often among the last in the city to have it restored.
She is not expecting anything different this time around.
“I don’t expect maybe until Tuesday,” she said. “So that’s what mentally I’m prepared for.”
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