Approximately 63,000 SWEPCO customers remain without power Saturday morning as Winter Storm Fern continues to impact the region with a second wave of freezing rain and ice accumulation Saturday night into Sunday morning.
The hardest hit areas are in Louisiana and Texas portions of SWEPCO’s service territory, where ice-covered trees and limbs continue to fall onto power lines, causing ongoing outages. As of 10 a.m., precipitation was beginning to taper off in most areas, allowing restoration crews to accelerate their work.
SWEPCO reports that transmission infrastructure and power plants are operating normally. Crews have restored more than 100 major breakers since the storm began and are conducting daylight damage assessments to determine the full extent of overnight damage.
Most outages are caused by trees falling from outside utility right-of-ways onto distribution equipment under the weight of accumulated ice. Additional crews from across the region have arrived to support local teams working in challenging conditions that include wind gusts, icy terrain, and treacherous roadways.
Residents are urged to stay off roads when possible to allow crews and first responders safe access to work sites. All downed power lines should be treated as energized and dangerous, and residents should stay at least 10 feet away.
Outages can be reported at SWEPCO.com, through the SWEPCO mobile app, or by calling 888-218-3919. Customers can check outage status at SWEPCO.com/OutageMap.