WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Another round of impactful storms passed through overnight, adding to the already saturated area and causing new repair challenges and increased outages.
- More heavy rainfall is expected in parts of SWEPCO’s service territory through midday Wednesday, causing additional dangers from flooding.
- With flooding comes additional challenges and complexities. The work is often slow but deliberate because of the extensive flooding and hard-to-reach, sometimes treacherous terrain. Safety for one another remains at the top of the crew's mind as they work in dangerous conditions.
- Due to significant damage, customers should prepare for extended outages as crews work as quickly and safely as possible.
- SWEPCO has mobilized an army of support. Crews continue to arrive from Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and our sister utilities at AEP Texas and Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO).
- Restoration times may be shared as crew assessments are completed following the latest storm events.
- Despite the setbacks from more extreme weather, SWEPCO remains united in our purpose to get the lights back on as quickly and safely as possible.
- We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work to rebuild.
- Significant flooding occurred throughout the ArkLaTex this week, impacting energy infrastructure and making repairs challenging.
CURRENT SITUATION
Another round of impactful storms moved through overnight. adding to the already saturated area and causing new repair challenges and increased outages.
During the early morning, radar indicated heavy rain and lightning lingering in SWEPCO’s Longview and Shreveport areas, with another line of strong storms with 50 mph gusts that were pushing from Dallas on through SWEPCO’s southern parts of its service territory in the Natchitoches, Many, Leesville, Hornbeck, and Mansfield communities, to name a few.
The Wednesday storms offered the sad reality of more utility problems because of additional flooding rains and significant wind gusts up to 50 mph. Lightning struck multiple transformers. Overly saturated soils caused numerous additional trees to uproot and fall from outside the rights of way, and the flooding compounded what has been described as a wet, soggy, muddy mess.
We’re all looking forward to glimmers of sunshine and blue skies returning.
SWEPCO is closely monitoring the weather to assist our restoration planning efforts. Reports indicate that once the heavy rain and thunderstorms move out this afternoon, there will be a break in the extreme weather at least until Friday night. Rest assured SWEPCO crews are taking advantage of every moment where there’s a pause from the storms to make progress on behalf of our customers.
With flooding comes additional challenges and complexities. Because of the extensive flooding and hard-to-reach, sometimes treacherous terrain, the work is often slow but deliberate. Safety for one another remains top of mind as crews work in dangerous conditions.
In addition to mobilizing an army of support, including about 937 resources and growing. Help enlisted for this most recent storm has or will soon arrive from Texas, Missouri, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and from our sister utilities at AEP Texas and Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO).
Crews and contractors with specialized track equipment have been brought in to access damaged areas. We have leveraged resources on the ground, in the air and on boats to make our way to where work needs to be done. Across our service territory, the dangerous and high floodwaters are slowing some individual repairs until the floodwaters have receded to a point where the work can be performed safely.
In addition to our CREWS staying vigilant of ALL the hazards that currently exist in their day-to-day job, we encourage our customers to also keep safety at the forefront including:?
- Be aware of damaged / vulnerable flooded trees;Look Up, look around, and look down. There could be hazards from dead and decayed limbs or branches. With the deluge of rain and flooded areas, trees remain a hazard to our infrastructure and the safety of our customers and our crews. Because of the overly saturated soil, trees could fall regardless of wind speed. Customers and crews are encouraged to be mindful of these hazards. To report a damaged tree, please use this form:https://www.swepco.com/outages/problem/tree.?
- Avoid operating vehicles on flooded roadways.Already, an incident occurred when a public driver hydroplaned and resulted in a collision near a SWEPCO contractor site.
- Please exercise caution and avoid any coned, flagged or utility restoration work areas.
If there is a safety hazard that poses an immediate risk, such as a downed pole or branches that have fallen on power lines, please report it immediately by calling 888.218.3919. Never go near or touch a power line.
Despite the setbacks from more extreme weather, SWEPCO remains united in our purpose to get the lights back on as quickly and safely as possible. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work to rebuild following this significant storm.Learn moreabout our restoration process.
Chances remain for more storms to pop up across SWEPCO’s entire three-state service territory today and into the weekend. Customers are advised to remain weather aware.
ESTIMATED TIME OF RESTORATION
Due to the weather impacts, all restoration times have been revoked and crews are reassessing. This latest storm erased our previous progress. As a result of the latest storms, crews will readjust all customer restoration times. Those updates will be shared once the latest assessments have been completed.
Learn more about?our restoration process.
GET RESTORATION UPDATES
By enrolling in our alerts at?SWEPCO.com/Alerts, customers get updated restoration information. When our crews arrive on individual work sites, a more precise restoration time for the affected group of customers will be updated in our system and communicated through alerts if the customers have signed up to receive our notifications by phone or email. Updated information can also be found at?SWEPCO.com/OutageMap.
Enroll in our alerts atSWEPCO.com/Alerts
POST-STORM SAFETY TIPS
Find post-storm safety tips:https://www.swepco.com/safety/
Report outages: Report outages:SWEPCO.com/outage
CAN YOU RECEIVE POWER?
Now is the time for customers to determine whether their home can receive power - SWEPCO cannot connect power to a home or business if there is damage to the service entrance, which is owned by the customer. Customers must have a licensed electrician repair damage before power can be restored. Click for a flyer inEnglish&Spanish.
Learn how to identify weatherhead damages by watching this video.ENGLISH|SPANISH
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What should customers do if they see downed lines?
Don't touch it or anything near it. Even telephone or cable lines can become energized. Keep yourself and others as far away as possible and call 911 or SWEPCO immediately at (888) 218-3919.
STAYING CONNECTED
Download the SWEPCO mobile app:SWEPCO.com/app
Follow SWEPCO onFacebookandX(formerly known asTwitter),InstagramandYouTube
Make sure we have your most recent contact information atswepco.com/account/
NEXT UPDATE
We will continue to keep you informed as more information becomes available. Updates will be provided at SWEPCO.com as well as other communication channels.
