Wednesday morning storms further impacts power restorations in East Texas

EAST TEXAS (KLTV) – The latest rounds of storms that have swept through East Texas early Wednesday morning has led to further power outages and continues to complicate restoration efforts.

Electrical providers have struggled to restore and maintain customers power on throughout the relentless weather events the past couple of weeks.

At last check, providers in East Texas were reporting over 80,000 outages, the majority of which are coming out of Smith County.

ONCOR is reporting a total of 42,929 outages as 6:06 a.m., over 25,000 of them are in Smith County alone. The second most outages are coming out of Hopkins County with a reported 4,952 outages. Henderson County is reporting over 1,500 outages meanwhile Van Zandt County is reporting over 1,100.

SWEPCO is reporting a total of 32,284 outages across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Hardest hit regions include Gregg and Harrison counties with a combined total of 8,935 reported outages. Panola and Rusk counties have reported over 2,000 outages each and Franklin County has lost power to 1,614 homes and businesses.

Upshur Rural Electric Co-Op is reporting over 9,000 outages across the region most of which are coming out of Gregg and Camp counties with 1,800 outages each. Harrison County has reported over 1,600 outages meanwhile Marion County is reporting over 1,300 outages. Smith, Morris, Cass, Upshur, and Wood counties are reporting a combined total of 1,800 outages.

Wood County Electric Co-Op is a harder hit provider with over 25% of their customer base in the dark. Over 8,500 outages are coming out of Wood County alone. Franklin County is the second hardest hit area with over 1,200 customers out of power. Titus and Van Zandt counties are reporting a combined 1,500 outages meanwhile Camp, Smith, and Hopkins are reporting a total of over 1,200 outages.

Debris from the storms has also led to a long list of road closures. Officials are advising commuters to watch for trees and downed power lines across roads in East Texas and to not attempt to move power lines. Also, intersections without power are to be treated as 4-way stop.

Tyler residents are reporting tree and power line damages throughout the city while roads in Longview have been reportedly flooded.

ONCOR officials stated yesterday that restoration was going to be a “slow process” and Pct. 2 Commissioner John Moore has already asked frustrated residents to remain patient and civil.

“Please remember that the folks who work at the county are human beings and they are overloaded and bombarded,” Moore said.

The power outages have also affected some county operations, including Pct. 5 Justice of the Peace and constable offices in Lindale which are currently closed.

For a full list of traffic conditions and road closures click here. You can also view road conditions reported by TxDOT here.

Oncor asks residents to report down power lines to the Tyler Police Department’s non-emergency line at (903) 531-1000 or 911.

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