News Releases

Crews Face Icy Roads and Road Closures Enroute to Damaged Areas

Improved weather conditions continue to aid ongoing restoration. Morning travel will be slow and slick due to overnight freezing. Due to significant damage, SWEPCO has shifted major resources to the Natchitoches area. Treat all downed power lines as energized and dangerous. Stay at least 10 feet away and keep children and pets indoors. Now is the time for customers awaiting power restoration to determine whether their home can receive power.

SWEPCO has activated drone teams and helicopters to assess damage to power lines across the Louisiana and east Texas service area. This technology provides recovery teams with a faster and safer way to find damaged lines in heavily wooded areas. 

Warmer weather is expected tomorrow, which will aid ongoing restoration. To accelerate assessments, helicopter and drone patrols have been deployed from Marshall, Texas and Natchitoches, La. As restoration is completed, resources are being relocated to other impacted areas still without power. Treat all downed power lines as energized and dangerous. Stay at least 10 feet away and keep children and pets indoors. Now is the time for customers awaiting power restoration to determine whether their home can receive power.

Winter Storm Fern has moved through the region, leaving behind record-low temperatures and several inches of ice across the Ark-La-Tex. Restoration times have been established for impacted areas. As restoration is completed, resources are being relocated to other impacted areas still without power. SWEPCO is using helicopters and drones to help quickly access hard-to-reach areas. Now is the time for customers to determine whether their home can receive power.

Winter Storm Fern has left about 63,000 SWEPCO customers without power, with the heaviest impacts in Louisiana and Texas as falling ice-covered trees continue to cause new outages. Transmission infrastructure and power plants remain stable, and crews have already restored more than 100 major breakers while beginning daylight damage assessments across the hardest hit areas. SWEPCO has a strong restoration plan in place, with growing crews from across the region working around the clock in challenging conditions to safely restore power and support critical facilities.

Winter Storm Fern is a nationwide weather event, affecting nearly 250 million people from Mexico to Canada. Across the U.S., more than one million Americans are without power, underscoring the severity of this storm and the regional challenges utilities are navigating. Despite these conditions, SWEPCO crews are making steady, meaningful progress and restoring power as quickly and safely as possible and have reduced outages significantly throughout Sunday. 

Winter Storm Fern continues to impact all of SWEPCO’s service territory with historic ice accumulation. Outages have reached a peak of more than 25,000 customers, and conditions may shift again as the storm’s second wave moves through overnight. SWEPCO crews are making progress in a challenging environment, with a full mobilization of up to 5,600 utility professionals underway. Customer are urged to report outages and stay away from downed power lines.

Winter Storm Fern is actively affecting all of SWEPCO’s service territory. This is a prolonged and historic weather event, and the National Weather Service has advised that conditions may worsen through the weekend. SWEPCO teams are responding with approximately 5,600 utility professionals, including line and forestry crews. Customers are urged to report power outages and downed lines through the app. 

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning across SWEPCO's service territory, and our meteorologists are closely monitoring a system expected to bring dangerously low temperatures, strong winds, and a wintry mix to parts of our region. SWEPCO teams are positioned and ready to respond with approximately 2,300 additional line and forestry personnel. Customers are encouraged to be prepared in the event of a power outage.