Hurricane Update No. 20
8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020

Shreveport, La., (Sept. 6, 2020) – SWEPCO’s workforce is continuing power restoration to approximately 7,000 Central Louisiana customer in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura, including 6,000 in the Hornbeck area and 1,000 in the Natchitoches area.

SWEPCO has restored power to 35,000, or about 83% of the 42,000 Central Louisiana customers who lost power. That includes customers in Bienville, DeSoto, Grant, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine, Vernon and Winn parishes.

For all of SWEPCO, power has been restored to about 129,000 customers, or 95%, of those without power after Hurricane Laura struck SWEPCO’s service area as a Category 2 storm on Thursday, Aug. 27.

SWEPCO will begin demobilizing its Natchitoches base camp Monday while work continues with full resources committed to the remaining customer outages in the Natchitoches area. Crews will continue to operate from base camps in Leesville and Shreveport and SWEPCO’s regular operations centers in Central Louisiana. 

Closing the Natchitoches base camp makes way for the return of students to the Northwestern State University campus this week.

“We appreciate everything that university President Dr. Chris Maggio, Natchitoches Mayor Ronnie Williams, Jr., Natchitoches Parish President John Richmond and all the local community leaders and citizens for helping make our base camp on the NSU campus a success,” said Drew Seidel, SWEPCO vice president of Distribution Region Operations.

Estimated Times of Restoration

The following are updated estimated times of restoration. Estimates are for 95% of customers who can take power. Many customers’ power will be restored sooner.

Hornbeck Area:

Leesville –

Sunday 11:59 PM - Hawthorne to Foul Road on Hwy 8

Monday 11:59 PM - East 28 & Slagle Road

Hornbeck –

Sunday 11:59 PM - Hornbeck - Burr Ferry; Anacoco - Hwy 111W; Florien city limits to Hwy 463 to Hwy 191; Plainview & Peason-

Hicks –

Sunday 11:59 PM - To Simpson - parish line

Monday 11:59 PM - Hicks to Slagle - Hwy 8 to Simpson; Hwy 121 to Leander

Natchitoches Area:
Provencal –

10 p.m. Monday - Provencal and south on Hwy. 117 to Belwood

Verda –

10 p.m. Sunday – Verda Hwy 122 to Montgomery; Verda Hwy. 471 and Hwy 122 to Dry Prong

10 p.m. Monday – Hwy. 471 Verda to Atlanta, La;

Derry –

7 p.m. Sunday - Derry La Hwy. 119 to Melrose

10 p.m. Monday – Derry La Hwy. 1 south to Marco

Grand Ecore –

10 p.m. Sunday – Hwy. 6 west of Grand Ecore and Clarence community, St. Maurice, Montgomery

Colfax –

10 p.m. Monday – Colfax Hwy 492 to Rock Hill community, Meade Rd

When Customer Repairs Are Needed

• SWEPCO cannot connect power to a home or business if there is damage to the service entrance, which is owned by the customer.
• Customers need to have a qualified electrician repair this damage before power can be restored. The service entrance includes the metal box housing SWEPCO's meter, the "weatherhead" pipe on top of the meter box, the service entrance cables running from the weatherhead through the meter box to the inside panel box, and other related facilities. Similar responsibilities apply to underground service.
• After repairs are made, contact SWEPCO to have power restored.

Tracking Outages

• Use the SWEPCO app, available for download via the App Store or Google Play.
• Log on to SWEPCO.com to report an outage and sign up for text and email updates, including an estimated time of restoration.
• Visit SWEPCO.com/OutageMap to find detailed information without logging into your account

Public Safety

• Customers without power who are on life support systems or need uninterrupted electric service for health reasons should make alternate arrangements for extended outages. Louisiana residents can call 211 to find cooling centers and other assistance.

• Be careful when driving or walking in all utility crew work zones.
• Maintain at least six feet of physical distance between yourself and SWEPCO field personnel as we all play a crucial role in preventing the spread of coronavirus.
• Workers are practicing social distancing and other measures to stay healthy and prevent the spread of coronavirus, making the recovery effort especially challenging.
• Downed power lines – Never touch a downed utility wire, no matter how harmless it looks. Don't touch anything in contact with the line, such as trees, fences or puddles of water. Stay away and keep others away. Call SWEPCO immediately
• Portable generators – If you use a portable or RV generator, do not plug the generator into your circuit box. Portable generators "backfeed" electricity up the line and risk the lives of repair workers and the public. Follow the manufacturers' instructions carefully, and plug essential appliances directly into the generator.

For updates and photos, see SWEPCO.com and follow SWEPCO on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO)

SWEPCO, an American Electric Power (AEP: NYSE) company, serves more than 543,000 customers in northwest and central Louisiana, northeast Texas and the Texas Panhandle, and western Arkansas. SWEPCO's headquarters are in Shreveport, La. News releases and other information about SWEPCO can be found at SWEPCO.com. Connect with us at Facebook.com/SWEPCO, Twitter.com/SWEPCOnews, Instagram.com/swepco, Youtube.com/SWEPCOtv, LinkedIn.com/company/swepco and SWEPCOConnections.com.

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