Tim Mulroy is aware of the massive cost estimate for burying power lines in an effort to ward off lengthy outages caused by weather. But he also remembers what it was like when he lived in a neighborhood without overhead lines.

For one, the Greentrees neighborhood in East Memphis was a prettier place, Mulroy said, without the lines dangling overhead, without the wooden poles and bulky transformers dotting streets and backyards.

And for another, while weather could still cause outages, they were usually measured in minutes and hours, not days and weeks as has sometimes been the case in Memphis.

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