Countless trees down across Campbell County; 13,000 LUB customers out of power at one time

TOP PHOTO: Davis Chapel Road at Middlesboro Road was closed for hours due to all the downed trees.

Brody and Bailey Ball provided pizza and water for the LUB crew that was replacing three damaged poles around their home at Ball Farm. Their parents, Billy and Jamie Ball, property suffered damage at the corner of Stiner Highway and Wildwood Circle.

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- Some may argue which part of Campbell County was hit hardest by the stronger of two severe storms on Tuesday. However, the damage from fallen trees and power outages was well distributed. See the photo galleries HERE and HERE from WLAF’s Charlie Hutson.

LUB’s Brandon Shown sets the first of three utility poles near the corner of Stiner Hwy and Wildwood Circle.

“We started at the Davis Chapel Road turnoff from Middlesboro Road, and just as soon as we turned off, it looked like a war zone,” said Lewis Lay with the Campbell County Highway Department. Likely more than 50 trees were downed across Campbell County, and that may well be a low estimate.

This is the third of three poles replaced near the Ball Farm Event Center on Tuesday evening. Power to this area was restored at 10:05pm Tuesday.

LUB crews, like county and municipality road crews, were all hands on deck. At one point, just before 6:30pm Tuesday, there were 13,410 power outages scattered over the LUB service area. That number of outages is likely one of the biggest outages in the history of the utility that serves 22,954 customers. That staggering outage number began shrinking soon after 6:30pm with 1,500 outages still on the map at 3am Wednesday.

John Baird is in the top bucket while Jordan McDeermon is in the lower bucket. Brandon Shown is operating the crane as Foreman Richard Goodman is on the ground making sure all is going as planned.

The Well Springs community was hammered with a storm that could possibly be described as severe. That was around 2:30pm. “We just got all that cleaned up, downed trees, and then the next storm hit,” said Campbell County Road Superintendent Ron Dilbeck.

Kevin Ayers with the County Highway Department loads cut trees into the truck on Davis Chapel Road.

“We’ve got all the roads open back up where everybody can travel. There’s still a lot of brush on the sides of the road, and we will be working the rest of the week trying to get all the debris and get everything cleaned up,” said Casey Boshears. Boshears is the Director of Public Works for La Follette and thanks his crew for their hard work and the citizens for their patience during the clean up.

For this three pole project, a big LUB was needed, and it was comprised of Richard Goodman, John Baird, Jordan McDeermon, Brandon Shown, Steve Reynolds, Tyler Brammer, Eric Griffith, Jason Vanover, Tony Claiborne, Brian Templin, Joe “Pie” Smith, Richard Nelson and Scotty McCulley.

LUB’s Steve Reynolds is at the second of three poles being replaced and prepares to move the lines over to the new pole.

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 07/31/2024-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)

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