Cleco continues to make progress after Hurricane Laura
Power restored to almost half of 140,000 customers

PINEVILLE, La. – Aug. 29, 2020 (11 a.m.) – Cleco continues to make progress on day two of Hurricane Laura storm restoration.  As of 11 a.m., workers have restored power to more than 62,000 customers, which is almost half of the 140,000 customers who lost power after Laura moved through the majority of Cleco’s service territory Thursday. 

“We’re steadily making progress, and we’ll do our best to provide restoration updates on specific cities and towns, as this information becomes available,” said James Lass, director of distribution operations and emergency management.  “It’s important that customers practice social distancing and not stop crews.  Not only is it unsafe, it slows power restoration work.”

Detailed Restoration Updates by Parish

Iberia and St. Mary parishes

• All customers who can accept power in Franklin and Patterson were restored yesterday.
• Crews are focusing efforts on New Iberia.  Most customers in New Iberia who can accept power will be restored today.
   

Acadia, Evangeline and St. Landry parishes

• Crews are working off Highway 167 North in Ville Platte on Rollins Rd., Stage Coach Rd. and Pilgrim St.
• Crews are working on Spring Prairie Rd. in Vidrine.
• Crews are working on Rock Pit Rd. near Pine Prairie.
• Crews are working in Eunice on scattered outages and emergency work.
• Crews are working in Basile.
• Crews are working in Opelousas (about 44 customers are without power, and crews are working to get those customers who can accept power back on today).
• Crews are working in Crowley.

DeSoto, Natchitoches, Red River and Sabine parishes

• Inside the city limits of Mansfield and Coushatta, crews have restored power to all hospitals, nursing homes, water wells and critical infrastructure.  Crews will be working within the city limits to restore power to remaining customers today.
• Crews are working on small pockets of power outages in the Village of Grand Cane, Gloster and the Village of Keachie and expect all customers who can accept power to be restored today.
• Crews will begin patrolling Campti and Clarence today and likely begin restoration efforts tomorrow. 
• Crews are working in Many and Zwolle and expect to have power restored to critical infrastructure today.  Then crews will continue restoration efforts focusing on residential and business customers. 
• Deridder, Leesville, Rosepine, Dequincy and Oakdale are in the hardest hit parishes.  Crews have started clearing trees, repairing broken poles and picking up downed lines; however, these areas will have extended power outages and the restoration will take multiple days.
• Toledo Bend, Toledo Town, Zwolle, Many and Lake Corridor areas are heavily wooded.  Crews plan to begin patrolling and restoring power in these areas within the coming days.  
   

Grant and Rapides parishes

• Crews are still gathering detailed information on cities and towns in these parishes through their damage assessments.  Cleco will report updates on Facebook @ClecoPower and on its website at cleco.com when available.
   

Below are outages by parish as of 11 a.m.
Acadia – 387

Allen – 5,917

Avoyelles – 2,474

Beauregard – 5,122

Calcasieu – 2,461

Catahoula - 18

Desoto – 1,322

Evangeline – 2,636

Grant – 7,696

Iberia – 48

Jefferson Davis - 39

Lasalle - 15

Natchitoches - 646

Rapides – 36,163
Red River – 44

Sabine – 6,363

St. Landry – 294

St. Mary - 512

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.