Power Outage Leaves Some Tecumseh Residents Looking For An Escape From Heat

At the height of the extreme summer heat, hundreds of customers in a Tecumseh neighborhood were without power.

Sunday, August 9th 2015, 10:26 pm

By: News 9


At the height of the extreme summer heat, hundreds of electricity customers in a Tecumseh neighborhood were without power.

Some residents ran their vehicles to get some relief. Others packed up to find another place to stay.

“My wife is disabled so I had to take her to a hotel just now so she can get some comfort from the heat,” resident Chris Morphew said.

And while they escaped the scorcher Sunday afternoon, crews continued to dig for the problem.

They had been out there since 4:30 p.m. Saturday when the power first went out. 

“It’s hot. The guys are working hard. We’ve got poor electric in this area to begin with,” resident Gary Jenkins said.

Going without power near Foggy Bottom Road and Pecan Grove Road is apparently common, according to multiple homeowners.

The fix isn't easy. Emergency management officials said the neighborhood's aging electric setup is all underground.

“That is something that has slowed the crews down. They find a location that they have to dig up and they have to call in a locate to find natural gas lines, telephone lines so they don’t create a bigger problem,” said Aaron Williams, the fire chief and emergency management director in Tecumseh.

In the meantime, the Red Cross opened a cooling center at city hall, offering drinks and time in the A/C and helping dozens of families find respite from their rising thermostats at home.

“It was at 72 (degrees) when the power went off and it hit 85 before sunset the same day, and I walked in today and it’s about 90,” resident Garrett Wilcox said.

But by Sunday evening, crews became confident they'd finally found the problem and the countdown began for the neighborhood desperate for normalcy. As of 5:15 a.m., crews restored power to all residents. 

Despite this ordeal, emergency officials said they did not respond to any heat-related calls in that neighborhood since the power went out.

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