In the pews of a Memphis, Tennessee, church on Monday morning, the Rev. Earle J. Fisher wasn’t getting a headstart on next Sunday’s sermon, he was preparing a resource hub.

“This can’t be my normal Monday because like so many others, we’re without power,” said Fisher, who teaches at LeMoyne-Owen College, an HBCU in Memphis. The school was forced to cancel classes because of the outage.

Instead, he and church member and activist Amber Sherman were converting his congregation into a lifeline, distributing water and generators to residents left in the dark after a weekend derecho, a severe type of thunderstorm, tore through Memphis.

More than 100,000 Memphis households lost electricity after a severe thunderstorm and winds struck Saturday evening.

As of Monday morning, there were still roughly 50,000 residents in the 62% Black city without power. Memphis Light, Gas and Water told residents full restoration might not come until Thursday.

The same story is playing out in Gary, Indiana, a city that is 76% Black, where tens of thousands have now gone nearly two weeks without power. For Black and low-income families, the loss of power can quickly turn fatal. This month, a Black family was found dead in their Rocky Mount, North Carolina, home after losing power for an unpaid bill.

When the power goes out in America, it does not go out equally. Research has found that Black communities face higher odds of outages and longer-duration interruptions. In Memphis and Gary, residents and elected officials say those disparities are compounded by poverty, aging infrastructure, and rising pressure on regional power systems.

“It seems to be a cycle that I hope we break,” Fisher said. “Black and impoverished community members are advocating for environmental protection [and] adequate investments in infrastructure, but there never seems to be an adequate response from the political establishment.”

Read the full article about Black communities experiencing more power outages by Adam Mahoney at Capital B News.