Crews working to restore power after Sunday storms

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - A round of strong storms on Sunday afternoon has left tens of thousands of people without power across north Alabama and sent crews into the field to repair the damage.

NOTE: The number and location of power outages changes rapidly. Information below may be quickly outdated:

Huntsville Utilities (10:10 p.m.): There are approximately 3,250 customers without power, which is down from a peak of 17,000; 8 poles to be replaced; 15 lines down; and 1 breaker open. Crews are working to restore power as quickly as is safely possible and will do so until all customers are restored. We are not able to give restoration estimates for specific areas/streets.

We appreciate the patience of our customers as crews work to restore power to all customers.

Decatur Utilities (10:00 p.m.): All available crews are continuing to make repairs needed to restore service to about 630 customers served by Decatur Utilities. However remaining outages are scattered throughout the city and restoration for some customers may not occur until sometime tomorrow. One of the factors hampering restoration in many areas are large trees that were brought down by a combination of previous heavy rain and extreme winds from this storm. DU has restored all substation breakers and major circuits. Damage is concentrated primarily in the northwest part of Decatur from 8th St north. However, there are also individual and smaller outages in other areas of town as well. Restoration of smaller, isolated outages serving smaller pockets of customers takes a longer period of time due to the number and isolated nature of the outages as well as the number of poles down, lines on the ground and trees blocking access to many areas.

Many customers also have damage to the electric facilities at their location. If a customer has damage to their weatherhead (where the overhead electric service line enters the meter box), repairs will need to be made by a licensed electrician before the power can be turned back on at that address. Typically this happens if a tree or limb falls across the service line and pulls the weatherhead away from the meter box OR pulls the weatherhead and meter box away from the wall. Customers should visually inspect their meter box for damage in the morning and contact a licensed electrician to get repairs scheduled if needed.

Crews will continue working through the night to restore customers. However, customers should be prepared that their power may be out overnight and well into tomorrow in some areas.

Joe Wheeler EMC (9:00 p.m.) At this time, we have just over 1,700 members without power across our service area – down from more than 9,000 a the peak. Most of the remaining outages are scattered across the service area and will take time to get back on. Our crews are working hard to get everyone back on as quickly as possible. To view the live outage map, please visit http://JWEMC.coop. If your power is out and you have not called in to report it, please do so. Thank you to everyone for your patience as we work to safely get everyone back up.

We also went to DeKalb County, where we heard a report of a tree that fell onto a home. The people inside were fortunately not hurt but their home is badly damaged and they’re staying at a hotel tonight. Meanwhile, Valley Head Elementary School says it will be opening two hours late on Monday as a result of the storms.

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