SWEPCO restores power to thousands, restoration for others underway – KTBS

SHREVEPORT, La. - SWEPCO employees and contract crews have restored power to more than half of its customers in the ArkLaTex who lost power after overnight storms broke utility poles, downed wires and felled trees.

RELATED ARTICLE -At least 3 dead as powerful storms push through ArkLaTex

At the peak, about 29,300 customers were without power.

As of 3 p.m. Saturday, approximately 12,500 customers remained without power. A SWEPCO spokeswoman said he company is working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to about 9,800 customers in Louisiana and 2,700 customers in Texas. Power is expected to be restored to all Arkansas customers by 4 p.m. today.

No matter how harmless a wire looks, never touch it, or go near it. It could be energized, said Tony Rash, SWEPCOs safety & health manager. Stay away and keep others away, especially children and pets.

Power is expected to be restored to 95 percent of customers who can receive power by:

Louisiana

Texas

Customers can receive an email or text message with the latest info for their home or business by signing up for alerts at SWEPCO.com/Alerts.

Nearly 400 additional line and tree personnel are helping SWEPCO employees restore power, including line mechanics from SWEPCOs sister utility Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO).

Extensive damage has been reported in Benton and Haughton, Louisiana, and Kilgore and Longview, Texas.

OUTAGE INFO:

SWEPCO Mobile App Report outages, check outage status and more. Download at the App Store or Google Play. See SWEPCO.com/App.

SWEPCO Alerts Get an email or text message with the latest info for your home or business. See SWEPCO.com/Alerts.

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SWEPCO restores power to thousands, restoration for others underway - KTBS