TOP PHOTO: WLAF News caught up with Foreman Richard Goodman’s crew on Cross Valley Road late Saturday afternoon.

Steve Reynolds (left) and Wes Caldwell work on a new transformer. Jack Faulkner oversees the broken pole as its put on the ground, and Richard Goodman prepares the area where the new pole will be placed.

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Friday night and Saturday wind and storms kept LUB and Campbell County Highway Department crews busy the first half of the weekend. Crews were out working late Friday into Saturday restoring power and clearing downed trees.

“We had a lot more trees down last night (Friday) than we did this morning,” said Campbell County Road Superintendent Ron Dilbeck.

Around La Follette, there were no big trees that fell. “There were a lot of limbs down. We were very fortunate,” said Casey Boshears, director of public works for La Follette.

There were some spotty power outages Friday night. “Once the brunt of the storm hit about 8-8:30 this morning (Saturday) is when the outages began,” said Gary Williams, LUB’s Director of Engineering.

Joe “Pie” Smith pulls the broken pole out of the ground so a new pole can be put in its place. Tony Claborn looks on.

Williams calls them widespread outages from Caryville to Harrogate; about 25 in all. “There weren’t many out around the lake. We had a couple at Hiawasse and Stinking Creek with a small outage at Westbourne,” added Williams.

At the peak, Williams says there were between 200 and 250 customers without electricity. “These mostly were lines down, trees down instances which usually take a couple of hours to repair. It’s starting to wind down (about 4:30pm, Saturday),” said Williams.

Travis Malicoat (left) and Steve Reynolds prep a new transformer.

After Friday’s and Saturday’s storms, quiet weather is forecast for the first half of this week. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 12/13/2021-6AM)

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