News Releases

An army of more than 1,200 utility professionals, including lineworkers and tree crews from Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky and Georgia, made another strong push Tuesday to restore power to more customers. Nearly 91% of all customers have been restored in under 43 hours.  

The National Weather Service’s storm survey team confirmed four tornadoes were within SWEPCO’s service territory. The severe weather late Sunday toppled trees, damaged power infrastructure and disrupted service to SWEPCO customers.

 SWEPCO is responding. Post-storm assessments are well underway and dozens of crews from Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alabama have begun to arrive and join with SWEPCO’s line and tree crews.  

SWEPCO crews are working to restore power to thousands of customers following violent spring storms that left a path of destruction this weekend. The damaging outbreak of severe weather, which included approximately 120 tornado watches and warnings across the nation’s heartland, also delivered a blow to closer to home in the ArkLaTex region. 

Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) invites the community to come together for a meaningful celebration of both Earth Day and Arbor Day. Join us on Saturday, April 27, 2024, from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Eagle Watch Nature Trail in Gentry, Arkansas, for a day dedicated to environmental stewardship and learning. 

More than 25,000 Ark-La-Tex residents have had their power restored following back-to-back storms on the heels of the Great American Eclipse. SWEPCO mobilized a workforce of nearly 900 people to aid in restoration efforts and redeployed resources to areas in need as work was completed elsewhere.

While SWEPCO employees and contractors are working quickly and safely to restore service, the additional lines of storms brought a second day of damaging winds and intense lightning that slowed progress and impacted transmission and distribution infrastructure. 

Storms that swamped many areas of the Ark-La-Tex as a result of relentless rain, damaging winds and flooding conditions also damaged SWEPCO’s energy system and disrupted power to thousands across the Ark-La-Tex region. 

Additional crews from SWEPCO’s Fayetteville district and SWEPCO’s sister operating companies, AEP Texas and Public Service of Oklahoma, have been requested to help restore service to our communities as safely and quickly as possible.

Damage assessors have reported downed power lines and fallen trees and tree limbs throughout the area