SWEPCO donates food and supplies to Grace Creek Church, which provided meals to the east Texas community throughout the storm.
June 25, 2023, SHREVEPORT, LA – Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) donated multiple food items and supplies today to help communities and customers recover from the recent super cell storm that pummeled the Ark-La-Tex on June 16.
SWEPCO began demobilizing its base camps late Saturday following a week-long historic restoration effort that mobilized more than 4,000 utility professionals. Excess goods were donated to local community partners.
The company sent donations of dry goods and frozen and refrigerated foods to the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana, Longview Dream Center and Grace Creek Church in Longview, Texas.
“Our community partners remain invaluable and we’re grateful for the collaboration. The storms impacted everyone, and it was heartening to see the all-in response to help rebuild, together,” said Paul Pratt, Director Customer Services & Marketing.
SWEPCO donated nearly four truckloads of food, supplies and other goods to the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana and another truckload to Longview Dream Center and Grace Creek Church.
“We’re so grateful for today’s donation from AEP SWEPCO,” said Martha Marak, executive director of the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana. “The food we received will be used to support our network of 130 organizations comprised of food pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters. We appreciate AEP SWEPCO turning their surplus into sustenance, ensuring that no disaster goes to waste. Together, we’re nourishing hope and feeding resilience in times of need.”
The final push to restore power to Ark-La-Tex residents is underway and crews have restored power to more than 240,000 customers.
The response matched the storm with a scaled response that mobilized more than 4,000 additional utility professionals who helped rebuild SWEPCO’s energy delivery system and restore power to customers as safely and quickly as possible.
As of 2 p.m. Sunday, June 25, reports show approximately 2,000 Ark-La-Tex residents remain without power and work continues following a late Friday storm that packed another punch to east Texas.
As a result of the super cell storm event that battered the region on June 16, SWEPCO activated its Incident Command Structure, a model first adopted by the company in 2015. ICS is used today as SWEPCO’s primary scalable response strategy for all events (weather and non-weather). The FEMA model includes incident activation for logistics to provide housing and meals for those deployed to help offer aid following the disaster.
Now that much of the larger work has been completed many of the mutual aid workers can now be redeployed to other places of need.
About Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO)
SWEPCO, an American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) company, serves more than 551,144 customers in Northwest and Central Louisiana, Northeast Texas and the Texas Panhandle, and Western Arkansas. SWEPCO’s headquarters are in Shreveport, La. News releases and other information about SWEPCO can be found at SWEPCO.com. Connect with us at Facebook.com/SWEPCO, Twitter.com/SWEPCOnews, Instagram.com/swepco, Youtube.com/SWEPCOtv and LinkedIn.com/company/swepco.
About American Electric Power (AEP)
American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, is powering a cleaner, brighter energy future for its customers and communities. AEP’s approximately 16,700 employees operate and maintain the nation’s largest electricity transmission system and more than 224,000 miles of distribution lines to safely deliver reliable and affordable power to 5.5 million regulated customers in 11 states. AEP also is one of the nation’s largest electricity producers with approximately 31,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including more than 7,100 megawatts of renewable energy. The company’s plans include growing its renewable generation portfolio to approximately 50% of total capacity by 2030. AEP is on track to reach an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 and has committed to achieving net zero by 2045. AEP is recognized consistently for its focus on sustainability, community engagement, and diversity, equity and inclusion. AEP’s family of companies includes utilities AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana, east Texas and the Texas Panhandle). AEP also owns AEP Energy, which provides innovative competitive energy solutions nationwide. For more information, visit aep.com.