TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) — Atmos Energy has started the process of restoring natural gas service to customers in Tupelo and Lee County.
The company shared the following update on Saturday morning, March 15 at 9:15:
“Atmos Energy has begun restoring service to customers who are affected by the temporary system outage in Lee County. This process that will take some time, so we have deployed additional resources, including highly trained technicians from other areas, to help restore service as quickly and safely as possible.
When service is ready to be restored, we will communicate directly with customers in the area with a valid mobile number on file via text message. We will continue to provide updates to this page.
When natural gas service is ready to be restored, here’s what you can expect:
Your natural gas piping and appliances must pass a safety check.A resident of the home or an authorized representative of the business who is 18 years of age or older must be present for the restoration services to be performed.We will need access to your natural gas meter throughout this process.You may choose to have an Atmos Energy technician enter your home or business to relight gas appliances that are accessible and in a safe working condition. However, this is not a substitute for routine or manufacturer-recommended safety inspections and maintenance of your appliances and gas piping. Your gas piping and appliances are your responsibility and should be inspected periodically.If you are not home or at your business when our crews are restoring service, we will leave a door tag with instructions. For questions regarding your natural gas service, please call 866.322.8667.”
The company had to manually turn off gas to thousands of customers, then purged the system of air and will then have to manually turn on gas for the same customers.