Browns Ferry Remains Offline after Tornado Outbreak

The Tennessee Valley Authority says it’s making progress in assessing damage to its power transmission system.

But as of Thursday night, nearly 650,000 homes and business were still without power, primarily in northern Alabama and Mississippi.

Roughly 70 high powered transmission lines remain out of service, with some creating dangerous situations because they’ve fallen across roads.

TVA’s Browns Ferry nuclear plant remains offline and will stay that way as long as so much of the surrounding grid is down, says TVA chief of operations Bill McCollum.

“When the system is ready for the plant, we can begin the process of restarting it. But we have to get the transmission system ready.”

Thursday, TVA returned seven damaged transmission lines to service – roughly 10 percent of the damage.