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Record low temperatures Wednesday morning and record high electric usage led to blackouts around Tullahoma area as much of the Mid-South stayed frozen in the remnants of the seven-inch snowfall that continued to cause headaches on the roadways through the week.

According to the National Weather Service observance at Tullahoma Airport, the low hit -9 just before 1 a.m. Wednesday morning and with wind chill, the bone-chilling low felt like -13. The temps didn’t crest zero again until 8 a.m. Wednesday. The cold weather is being blamed for six deaths in Tennessee since the snap began. The record lows not only locked in the frozen precipitation on the ground but it also put a huge burden on the power grid across the entire Mid-South.

TVA officials issued a statement and said that TVA had set a preliminary all-time, record peak of approximately 34,500 MW at 4 degrees at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 17. The previous TVA all-time record was 33,482 in August of 2007.

“We’re grateful to our employees, as well as our local power company partners, who are working to keep everyone safe and warm,” TVA officials said. “We also greatly appreciate the energy conservation efforts across the region.”

With the drop in temperatures, reaching to -9 degrees in Tullahoma, according to the US National Weather, Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Tullahoma Utilities Authority (TUA) asked customers to reduce their electrical use as much as possible, without sacrificing their safety, to help extend available power supply.

However, residents experienced power outages, and TUA put out a statement to customers letting them know that the crews were actively working to address the issues.

“(TUA) provides power to our customers using a three-phase electric system,” TUA officials said. “Extreme temperatures can cause our feeder to be loaded much differently than under normal operation. We have protection in place that will prevent system damage if the feeders are significantly out of balance.”

Per TUA officials in a statement, on Jan. 17 at approximately 12:45 a.m., one of the protection schemes operated, causing power to be interrupted to a large portion of customers.

“A quick reconfiguration of our system by our TUA lineman allowed for continued operation for the remainder of the morning,” officials said. “In addition, TUA linemen worked through the night restoring a few minor outages all related to the extreme cold and the higher than normal loads.”

They went on to say that the health of TUA’s electric system remains “reliable, resilient and robust.”

“Despite these temporary disruptions, our team promptly addressed the situation and necessary measures have been taken to ensure the reliability of services. We understand the importance of uninterrupted service for our customers, and we are committed to maintaining a high standard of reliability. Thank you for understanding, and please be assured that we are here to assist you with any concerns or inquires.”

Tullahoma City Schools announced that its schools and Kool Kids would remain closed through the week due to the continuing freezing temperatures. The announcement means the snow has eaten up all of TCS’ stockpile days.

“With below-freezing temperatures continuing, much of the snow and ice from the last couple of days has yet to melt,” TCS officials said in a statement. “To ensure safety in traveling, TCS will remain closed through Friday. We hope to welcome everyone back on Jan. 22.”

County and state offices also reopened Thursday at employee discretion as, although most main roads were passible with enhanced caution, most secondary and residential roads continued to be slick pending the first above-freezing day of the week on Thursday.

While the latter part of the week saw a slight warm up, lows were expected to be in the teens again Saturday night before temperatures are expected to moderate with highs climbing into the 60s late this week.