A week after facing the largest power outage in the city's history, Memphis is slowly getting back on its feet: businesses are open, people are returning to work and more and more houses have porch lights shining 24 hours a day.
Over 300,000 MLG&W customers were without power after Tuesday morning's storm.
This week Memphis Light Gas &Water (MLG&W) is struggling to restore power to the 70,000 residents in Memphis and Shelby County that are still in the dark.
Another 7,000 lost power iin a second storm that hit Memphis a week after the big storm.
The process of restoring power is not limited to repairing power lines and poles. MLG&W has to deal with fallen trees, debris from houses and the shortage of equipment to replace the damaged transformers and poles.
MLG&W has instituted a Utility Repair Assistance Program to help low to moderate income households make repairs needed as a result of the storm.
In a press release issued from the mayor's office, Willie W. Herenton has opened a Command Center at City Hall.
According to the press release, the center will provide citizens with information about disaster relief and contact information for various services.
"I want agencies who are providing services to the community to call the center and let us know what they are doing so that we can alert citizens," Herenton said.
Time Warner Cable has announced they will automatically issue credits for the time that customers were without service. However, in a press release issued by Time Warner Cable, they did state that because of the differing times that cable was restored in different areas, the credits might not appear on bills until September.
In addition to power and cable outages, some people have lost more than just the comforts of home.
There have been seven deaths attributed to the storm, some of which were caused by carbon-monoxide poisoning from a generator used to power a home without electricity.
As far as when every MLG&W customer will have power, there have been no definite times given.
Unfavorable weather conditions may have slowed crews on Tuesday, but they will continue to work around the clock in an effort to restore power to every customer as soon as possible.
