News

7/2/2012

VEC Customers Affected by Overnight Storms

7:30 a.m.

Volunteer Energy Cooperative customers across the system were affected by a series of storms overnight.

Storms began affecting customer service at approximately 9 a.m. At the height of the event, about 5,000 customers were out of power throughout VEC's 17-county service area.

As of 7:30 a.m., 800 remain without services, mainly in the Cleveland and Polk County areas.

The VEC service areas from Rhea County southward were affected by heavy lightening while strong winds were to blame in areas north of Rhea County.  Electric wires were down in several areas of Pickett County.  Fentress County experienced a series of outages that affected about 1,000 residents.  Residents in the Hopewell area of Cleveland were out of service; some work is still being done in this area.

Crews have been working through the night to restore service and continue to work this morning.  Service is expected to be restored to most areas later this morning.

Back to News