CARROLL COUNTY (March 5) — Severe weather hammered the mid-south area over a three-day period last week starting on Wednesday. For Carroll County, the most intense action took place on Friday with severe storms in the morning and dangerously high winds throughout the day, knocking out power to roughly 6,456 Carroll County Electric Department (CCED) customers.

The National Weather Service reported wind gusts of up to 54 mph in Huntingdon, 60 mph in Paris, and 44 mph in Greenfield. Benton County had the highest wind gusts in the West Tennessee reporting area with 66 mph in Camden. Clarksville Outlaw Field Airport reported the highest wind gusts of 79 mph, breaking the previous record from August 2014.

High winds left a path of destruction littered with downed power lines and trees as well as damage to businesses’ signage and homes. The wind continued to wreak havoc until around 6 p.m. Friday evening when the warning expired.

As of Sunday, CCED reported approximately 64 customers remained without power. “Restoration work will continue until crews reach their mandatory rest requirements,” Kelly Fields reported. CCED anticipates that restoration efforts will be ongoing into Monday or later.

CCED Update Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. — Approximately 800 customers were still experiencing outages. Ryan Drewry, general manager of Carroll County Electric said, “Our crews are chasing approximately 160-plus actionable items. This includes an estimated 25 poles, scattered downed lines, trees on lines, transformers out, blown fuses, individual customer service drops and/or service entrances which will need electrician repair before power can be restored, etc.
“We are utilizing our right-of-way contractors, Davey Tree, to clear trees so our crews can repair issues quicker when they arrive.
“CCED had 6,456 customers out shortly after this intense, widespread wind event began around 11:15 a.m. Friday. Roughly 5,500 customers had power restored by midnight Friday. Approximately 200 more customers have been restored this morning (Saturday).
“We ask for continued patience as the power restoration process continues throughout weekend, with the possibility of extending into the beginning of the week. Thank you for your understanding and outage reports.”

As of 8 p.m. Saturday, Drewry reported, “There are approximately 300 customers without power. CCED crews have restored around 700 customers today. Outages are scattered throughout the service territory and not isolated to any one area. Additional help is anticipated to arrive tomorrow. This will positively impact power restoration allowing us to reach more customers quicker. We thank you for your continued patience and understanding.”