Pineville, La. – Tonight, Cleco expects to restore power to 90 percent of the 15,000 customers who experienced outages after severe thunderstorms impacted the central and northern portions of its service territory. 

Cleco has approximately 100 line mechanics responding to the restoration effort, as well as additional resources committed to support the restoration effort.  Damage includes broken poles and crossarms, as well as downed power lines due to trees and limbs hitting the electric system as strong winds blew through the area. 

As of 5 p.m., Cleco had approximately 3,000 customers without power.  Even though crews have made progress, some customers will remain without power through the night.  Cleco expects to have crews working through the night and tomorrow to return power to customers. 

“Cleco crews have been working around the clock to restore power to customers,” said James Lass, manager of distribution operations and emergency management.  “We are pleased with our progress and expect to restore power to 99 percent of customers affected by the storms by tomorrow night.” 

Parish	Customer outages
Avoyelles	83
Desoto	2,087
Natchitoches	27
Red River	728
Sabine	163

 

For the most up-to-the-minute outage information, visit Cleco’s Storm Center.

Even with power restored to most customers, electric lines still could be lying on the ground. Cleco reminds everyone to stay away from downed power lines. Even if power has been restored in an area, it is not safe to assume lines are de-energized. Stay away and keep others away.  To report a potentially dangerous situation with electricity, call 911 or Cleco at 1-800-622-6537.