Company reminds customers problem that caused outage could be several miles away

PINEVILLE, La. – Aug. 29, 2020 (8 a.m.) – As of 8 a.m., Cleco has restored power to over 40 percent of the roughly 140,000 customers who experienced outages after Hurricane Laura made landfall in southwest Louisiana early Thursday morning. 

“This is our day-two morning update,” said James Lass, director of distribution operations and emergency management.  “Workers will be removing trees and replacing poles and power lines throughout the day.  We also will continue assessing damage, as it’s very widespread.  There are some areas we still haven’t been able to fully survey due to flooding.”

Cleco has said the recovery could be long, and the hardest hit parishes, including Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Grant, Rapides and Vernon may experience extended outages. 

Cleco plans to begin providing restoration timeframes for specific towns and cities as damage assessments are completed. 

In the meantime, Cleco is reminding customers that the cause of their outage may be several miles away from their home or business or in someone’s back yard a few blocks away.  The damage also may be at a substation or in areas that are only accessible with specialized equipment like three wheelers or boats.  In these instances, customers won’t see any Cleco trucks in their neighborhood.

“We want to assure our customers that crews are working as safely and quickly as possible to restore their power,” said Lass.  “We appreciate our customers’ patience.”

Below are outages by parish as of 8 a.m. 

Acadia – 389

Allen – 5,917

Avoyelles – 2,382

Beauregard – 5,122

Calcasieu – 2,461

Catahoula - 18

Desoto – 1,322

Evangeline – 3,174

Grant – 7,696

Iberia – 400

Jefferson Davis - 39

Lasalle - 15

Natchitoches - 646

Rapides – 37,091

Red River – 44

Sabine – 6,363

St. Landry – 406

St. Mary - 533

Vernon – 5,685

For additional information on Cleco’s storm response, follow the company on Facebook @ClecoPower or visit Cleco’s Storm Center page at cleco.com/storm-center.