Eight have died in Tennessee winter storm, Department of Health confirms

Gina Butkovich, Memphis Commercial Appeal
·2 min read
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Snow and ice covered Union Avenue in Memphis on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, after an Arctic cold front brought single digit temperatures to the area.

There have been eight winter storm related fatalities in Tennessee as of Thursday, the Tennessee Department of Health confirmed.

The department confirmed that two of the fatalities were in Shelby County, while six were in Cumberland County.

Memphis Police confirmed one death related to the cold weather late last week. Officers were directed to the 1400 block of Union Avenue Friday morning. The man's identity has not been released.

Details about the second death in Shelby County were not released Thursday.

In Cumberland County, the Sheriff's Office released a statement Monday that said they believe four adults and two children died in an early morning house fire.

An Arctic blast dropped temperatures across the state into the single digits on Dec. 23.

In Memphis, the National Weather Service Memphis reported that the coldest temperature Friday clocked in at zero degrees at their office just before 6 a.m., and the coldest air temperatures from the Memphis International Airport registered 1 degree at 7 a.m. Friday morning.

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) activated to a Level 3-State of Emergency Friday and the Tennessee Valley Authority, the federal agency that supplies all of Tennessee and parts of six other states with electricity, mandated local power companies, including Memphis, Light, Gas and Water, shed up to 10% of their electric load. At one point Saturday morning, more than 10% of electric customers in Tennessee didn't have power and a total of 226,000 of MLGW's 422,000 customers felt the impact.

A second storm hit parts of the state Monday, with some areas in middle Tennessee seeing only saw a half inch of snow, while others saw up to two inches. The National Weather Service in Nashville had a winter weather advisory in place until 12 p.m. CT on Monday and officials warned that roads could be slick and dangerous.

The Department of Health also reported Thursday that 32 counties were currently reporting issues to their water systems and 15 local jurisdictions have issued boil water advisories. In Memphis, a boil water advisory has been in place since Saturday night for all MLGW water consumers. The utility issued an advisory for north and south Memphis and Southeast Shelby County on Friday.

Gina Butkovich covers DeSoto County, storytelling and general news. She can be reached at 901-232-6714.

Commercial Appeal news reporter Lucas Finton, Commercial Appeal Memphis city government and politics reporter Samuel Hardiman, Commercial Appeal education and children's issues reporter Laura Testino, Commercial Appeal Food & Dining reporter Jennifer Chandler and Tennessean First Amendment reporter Angele Latham contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tennessee weather: Eight have died in winter storm