MLGW not expecting significant outages as Memphis dodges ice
Cars travel on I-240 during winter conditions on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
Road conditions in Memphis deteriorated overnight and Memphians should stay off the roads, the city’s public works director said Sunday, Jan. 26.
Scott Morgan, the city’s public works director, said some of his crews were struggling to get to work and start clearing the roads but he anticipated city crews would be able to make some progress as Sunday wore on.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water CEO Doug McGowen said the utility’s three services were working normally and the utility was responding to a handful of residential customer outages.
Memphis emergency officials spoke as relatively mild conditions prevailed on the ground.
Despite the frigid cold forecasted to linger for days, Memphis dodged the debilitating ice that appeared to wreak havoc across northern Mississippi, parts of West Tennessee and enveloped Middle Tennessee, including Nashville, in its power-disrupting grip.
Images from Poweroutage.US., an aggregator of utility outages across the U.S., showed that utilities covering a thick swath of the south struggled with substantial outages Sunday morning.
A significant number of Nashville Electric Service’s residential customers were without power at 8:15 a.m. Sunday.
McGowen said the forecast showed that Memphis should dodge the severe effects of the freezing rain and expected a small amount of ice accumulation for the rest of day.
“We have not had the freezing rain that was forecast for us. I think you can see by looking to our south and to our east how close that was and what the impact is. So I do not forecast significant outages due to accumulation of ice,” McGowen said.
He said he anticipated releasing some of MLGW’s contract crews to help other utilities later Sunday.
Topics
winter weather Memphis Light Gas and Water Winter Storm 2026Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise reporter who focuses on government and politics. He began his career at the Tulsa World where he covered business and K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on the intersection of government, public policy, influence and how public dollars are spent.
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