SWEPCO has updated the estimated restoration times for customers in the Ark-La-Tex area after several lines of storms made their way through the region overnight and throughout the day. More severe storms are forecast for late afternoon and early evening, which may delay workers’ progress in restoring power.
We estimate power will be restored to 95% of customers by these times:
Louisiana
- Shreveport: 5 p.m. Saturday, April 16
- Bossier City: 5 p.m. Saturday, April 16
- Haughton: 5 p.m. Saturday, April 16
- Vivian, noon Friday, April 15
- Mansfield 10 p.m. Thursday, April 14
- Logansport: 10 p.m. today
East Texas
- Longview: 5 p.m. Thursday, April 14
- Gladewater: 10 p.m. Thursday, April 14
- Carthage: 10 p.m. today
- Henderson: 10 p.m. today
- Marshall: 10 p.m. today
- Gilmer: 7 p.m. today
Arkansas
- Lockesburg: 11:59 p.m. tonight
- Nashville: 11:59 p.m. tonight
We’ve restored service to customers in the Natchitoches and Hornbeck areas in Louisiana and the Kilgore and Mineola areas in East Texas.
Damage assessors report widespread damage with trees, utility poles and wires down after Tuesday evening’s severe storms. Additional crews from SWEPCO’s Fayetteville district and SWEPCO’s sister operating companies have been requested to assist with restoration.
As of 4 p.m., nearly 30,000 SWEPCO customers are without power, including 24,000 in Louisiana, 4,300 in East Texas, and 1,400 in Arkansas. At the peak, about 65,000 customers were without power.
“We prioritize restoring power to essential public health and safety facilities such as hospitals and police and fire stations,” said Drew Seidel, SWEPCO vice president of Region Distribution Operations. “At the same time, we assign teams to repair major power lines and substations in order to restore power to the largest numbers of customers in the shortest time.”
Widespread Damage Reported
Damage reports include:
- A portable building blew into an electrical substation in Haughton, causing an outage;
- Three 55-foot utility poles east of Louisiana State University – Shreveport were downed by a possible tornado;
- In Longview, heavy wind gusts took down numerous poles and lightning struck several power lines, causing fuses to blow;
- High winds toppled trees in heavily wooded parts of Mansfield, which crews will require specialty equipment to access in order to make repairs.
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About Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO)
SWEPCO, an American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) company, serves more than 543,000 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.