Warmth, light, and power have come back to most of the Memphis area, but only after a brutal ice storm added a layer of turmoil and anxiety to a frustrated city already wracked by both.
Early last week, the National Weather Service warned that the Memphis atmosphere had the ingredients — lots of precipitation and freezing temperatures — for a nasty February ice storm. It proved a successful recipe that delivered power outages to nearly 140,000 Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) customers in temperatures that barely peaked above freezing.
The ice locked many inside their homes where they listened anxiously to a seemingly never-ending series of cracks, booms, and thuds from tree limbs breaking and falling under the weight of sheets of ice nearly a quarter of an inch thick. City of Memphis crews responded to more than 270 calls from citizens to remove trees from roads and other public rights of way. Huge piles of wood are still visible along city streets.
As of press time, local government officials were working with state and local governments to declare a state of emergency to unlock more government funds to help with clean-up and recovery.
