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Atmos crews have now restored service to 140 homes where people were part of the initial evacuation in Northwest Dallas.
Around 120 construction crews continued to work around the clock Monday in the planned outage area to get homes back on line. It’s a process that will last two to three weeks, an Atmos PR rep told FOX4.
Atmos says the natural gas outage for the 2,800 homes is out of "an abundance of caution" as it repairs the flawed gas system that resulted in three house fires and explosions. The most recent one killed 12-year-old Linda Michelle Rogers.
Tuesday is the earliest affected residents can request additional financial assistance from Atmos at one of two rec centers. Some people showed up a day early to avoid another huge line, but they were told to come back the next day.
Louis Campbell is one of the affected residents and is keeping a close eye on the progress. Her street has been without service for nearly two weeks.
“Our house is totally gas,” she said. “We have a gas stove and hot water heater. So we have electric crockpots and electric skillets. That how we’ve been heating our water and taking baths.”
Like most of the 2,800 households located within the affected area, Campbell has taken advantage of the $1,250 offered by Atmos Energy. Some are using it to for lodging while others are banking the money and riding it out for the time being.
Katelynn Jones has been without natural gas since Thursday. It’s meant cold showers, no cooking and no heat at her home.
“It makes me wonder, is that elsewhere or just our neighborhood?” she said.
Claudia Wright lives a mile outside of the outage zone outlined by Atmos. Yet, her neighbors tell FOX 4 they were evacuated too and forced out of their homes since Thursday. Atmos crews have been hard at work there at Royal Lane and Snow White Drive.
"We are having a lot of people just come in and testing for fumes,” Wright said. “They've been very nice. They're working so hard. They've been here 24/7."
The Walnut Hill Rec Center and the Bachman Lake Rec Center will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. for residents with questions and who need help with financial assistance.