Knoxville utilities crews work to restore power after intense storms

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - People across Knoxville were left in the dark after intense storms and wind passed through the area. Thousands of Knoxville Utilities Board customers were dealing with the outages Saturday morning as crews assessed the damage.

Previous Coverage: Tracking power outages and damages on Friday’s First Alert Weather Day

KUB crews kept at work overnight to help get power back online.

Officials said widespread fallen power lines and tree branches were the roots of the problem.

“They’re gonna look for safety concerns: downed wires that are a hazard to customers. If there is a safety concern, the crews aren’t qualified to work on those wires. They’re going to make sure the scene is safe and keep people away from those wires,” said Harley Bryant, Customer Support Supervisor for KUB.

Crews have set Sunday afternoon to have power completely up and running again. Until then, they target the largest of the blackouts.

“A lot of those are smaller outage events. What we consider a small outage event affects one or two people- maybe ten to fifteen people on those individual events, so there is a lot of individual work that needs to happen,” said Bryant.

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