SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE:
As of 9 p.m. Sunday, Cleco crews have restored power to over 80,000 of the 140,000 customers affected by Hurricane Laura after it made landfall in southwest Louisiana Thursday. Customer outages by parish as of 9 p.m.
Acadia – 16
Allen – 5,917
Avoyelles – 1,472
Beauregard – 5,122
Calcasieu – 2,461
Catahoula - 18
Desoto – 476
Evangeline – 513
Grant – 6,862
Iberia – 5
Jefferson Davis - 39
Lasalle - 15
Natchitoches - 646
Rapides – 26,646 Red River – 27
Sabine – 3,846
St. Landry – 28
St. Mary - 9
Vernon – 5,685
For the most up-to-date information, follow the company on Facebook @ClecoPower and visit Cleco’s website at cleco.com.
EVENING UPDATE:
As of 6 p.m. today, Cleco and contractor crews have restored power to over 78,000 of the 140,000 customers affected by Hurricane Laura after it made landfall in southwest Louisiana Thursday.
Cleco offers the tips below to help keep customers safe before and after power is restored. “We also want to remind customers that their electricity may not be turned back on due to structural damage or damage to electrical equipment on their side of the meter,” said James Lass, director of distribution operations and emergency management. “Cleco will reconnect the electricity after a licensed electrician has made the necessary repairs and the proper authorization is received.”
What to do before and after power is restored:
· Check your property for damage. When walking through storm damage, wear long pants, a long-sleeved shirt and sturdy shoes.
· Make sure the water is safe to drink. Call local authorities or listen to news outlets for boil advisories.
· Keep refrigerators and freezers closed.
· Unplug appliances and electronic devices when the power is out (air conditioning units, refrigerators, computers, laptops, televisions, etc.)
· Operate portable generators in a well-ventilated area, never run a generator indoors, and plug appliances directly into generators with grounded extension cords that can handle the load. Don't plug a generator cord directly into a wall outlet. A generator can back feed electricity through your electric wiring to the entire Cleco circuit. This can cause injury or even death to a worker attempting to repair that circuit and anyone else who comes in contact with power lines.
· If water is rising near your home or business, turn off electricity at the main breaker. Evacuate and do not return until waters have completely receded. Wait until the water recedes and have an electrician check the building's wiring before using the electricity.
For the most up-to-date information, follow the company on Facebook @ClecoPower and visit Cleco’s website at cleco.com.
Customer outages by parish as of 6 p.m.
Acadia – 36
Allen – 5,917
Avoyelles – 1,448
Beauregard – 5,122
Calcasieu – 2,461
Catahoula - 18
Desoto – 476
Evangeline – 893
Grant – 7,157
Iberia – 7
Jefferson Davis - 39
Lasalle - 15
Natchitoches - 602
Rapides – 27,737 Red River – 27
Sabine – 3,896
St. Landry – 33
Vernon – 5,685
AFTERNOON UPDATE:
As of 2 p.m. today, Cleco and contractor crews have restored power to over 76,000 of the 140,000 customers affected by Hurricane Laura after it made landfall in southwest Louisiana Thursday.
“Our numbers continue to improve, but we still have a long way to go,” said James Lass, director of distribution operations and emergency management. “This is the second largest number of resources we’ve brought in for a storm, second only after Hurricane Katrina. To date, we have over 3,000 personnel dedicated to restoration efforts with numbers increasing each day.”
Below are restoration updates on some of the impacted parishes. Cleco will report updates on other areas as they become available. For the most up-to-date information, follow the company on Facebook @ClecoPower and visit Cleco’s website at cleco.com.
Grant and Rapides parishes
· Cleco has restored power to 12,500 customers across these two parishes.
· Over the next three to seven days, Cleco plans to reduce the number of customers without electricity in these two parishes by five to 10 percent daily.
· The region experienced catastrophic damage, including damage to every distribution and transmission substation that serve these two parishes. Additionally, the hurricane-force winds and downed trees caused significant damage to Cleco’s poles, lines and transformers resulting in outages to all customers in this area which is estimated to be 45,000.
· Many roads and areas that crews needed to access were blocked by trees which slowed down restoration efforts, making it challenging to replace damaged equipment.
· Cleco currently has 900 workers in these parishes making repairs and restoring power, and 120 more workers will be arriving tomorrow.
DeSoto, Natchitoches, Red River and Sabine parishes
· Power restored to all customers who can take power in Mansfield, Grand Cane, Keachie Gloster, Village of Converse, Many, Zwolle, Nobel and the City of Coushatta.
· Crews are working inside the town of Campti and expect roughly half of the customers will be restored today and the remaining customers tomorrow.
· Crews are patrolling Clarence today and expect to begin making repairs tomorrow.
· Crews are working and expect service to customers in Pleasant Hill will be on late today or tomorrow.
· Crews are working in Oak Grove and expect to have some customers’ power on tonight and the remainder on by tomorrow.
· Crews patrolling and working in Toledo Bend Corridor (from Stanley Community to Toledo Bend). Damage is extensive. Customers should expect extended outages.
· Crews will begin restoration efforts early this week in the Stanley Community.
Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Vernon parishes
· DeRidder, Leesville, Rosepine, Dequincy and Oakdale are in the hardest hit parishes. These towns are heavily damaged. Restoration is underway. While crews will be working daylight until dark, customers should expect extended outages.
· Crews expect to have critical infrastructure back on in Oakdale, Oberlin and Kinder by end of day tomorrow. For residential customers, Cleco is still assessing damage. Customers should expect extended outages.
Acadia, Avoyelles, Evangeline and St. Landry parishes
· Power restored to all customers in Basile, Opelousas and Mamou.
· Crews continue to work in Ville Platte, Crowley and Eunice areas. Some customers in these areas will have power restored today and others will remain without power overnight.
Customer outages by parish as of 2 p.m. Acadia – 26
Allen – 5,917
Avoyelles – 1,612
Beauregard – 5,122
Calcasieu – 2,461
Catahoula - 18
Desoto – 489
Evangeline – 858
Grant – 7,146
Iberia – 9
Jefferson Davis - 39
Lasalle - 15
Natchitoches - 630
Rapides – 29,532 Red River – 28
Sabine – 4,027
St. Landry – 88
St. Mary - 10
Vernon – 5,685
MORNING UPDATE:
As of 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Cleco crews continue to make progress, restoring power to more than 50 percent of the 140,000 customers affected by Hurricane Laura after it made landfall in southwest Louisiana Thursday.
As of 8 a.m., power has been restored to more than 74,000 customers.
Below are outages by parish as of 8 a.m. on Sunday, August 30:
Acadia – 33
Allen – 5,917
Avoyelles – 1,915
Beauregard – 5,122
Calcasieu – 2,461
Catahoula - 18
Desoto – 580
Evangeline – 1,171
Grant – 7,110
Iberia – 7
Jefferson Davis - 39
Lasalle - 15
Natchitoches - 646
Rapides – 30,311
Red River – 33
Sabine – 3,977
St. Landry – 104
St. Mary - 11
Vernon – 5,685
For additional information on Cleco’s storm restoration efforts, follow the company on Facebook @ClecoPower or visit Cleco’s Storm Center page at cleco.com/storm-center.
