Update: 6:30 p.m. - Cleco has restored power to all but 654 of the nearly 20,000 customers who lost electricity after powerful thunderstorms moved through the company’s service territory earlier Wednesay.
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Cleco has restored power to more than 16,000 of the nearly 20,000 customers who experienced power outages following severe thunderstorms that moved through Cleco’s service territory early this morning.
As of 2:30 p.m., Cleco had approximately 3,126 customers without power. The majority of these remaining power outages are in Rapides Parish, which was one of the hardest hit parishes.
“We’ve made significant progress, restoring power to over 80 percent of our customers since this morning,” said James Lass, director of distribution operations and emergency management. “In addition to our local Cleco crews, we’ve mobilized our crews from others areas in the state. We also have more than 100 contractors assisting us.”
Cleco reminds customers of the following safety tips during storm restoration efforts.
· Stay away from downed or low-hanging power lines and do not touch anything touching a downed power line.
· Do not connect portable generators to your home’s electrical wiring and never operate portable generators in an enclosed space like a garage.
· If water is getting close to your home or business, turn off individual breakers and then turn off the electricity at the main breaker.
· Call Cleco at 1-800-622-6537 and 911 to report an unsafe situation with electricity.
Around 8,000 customers with Cleco are still without power as of 10:00 am on Wednesday morning.
Cleco at that time said they had restored power to more than half of their customers affected. 20,000 lost power due to severe storms that moved through the area on Tuesday night.
Grant and Rapides were the hardest hit parishes in their coverage area but St. Landry Parish has also seen a number of outages Wednesday morning with about 400 still without power.
As of 10:30 a.m., Cleco had approximately 8,162 customers without power, a release states.
“Cleco crews are working hard to restore power to all those impacted by these severe thunderstorms, and we are getting some contractor crews to assist us,” said James Lass, director of distribution operations and emergency management. “Crews also are working to clear debris and pick up electrical power lines and poles knocked down by the damaging winds.”
Cleco reminds customers to be aware of possible downed power lines. Stay away from low-hanging or downed power lines and do not touch anything touching a downed power line.
Call Cleco and 911 to report an unsafe situation with electricity. For additional safety tips, please visit www.cleco.com.
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