Thousands without power in Corpus Christi area; controlled outages possible

Thousands of people in the Corpus Christi area remained without power Wednesday as low temperatures continue across the region.  

Wednesday morning, temperatures in the Corpus Christi area were 35 degrees with a wind chill of 27 degrees. 

As of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the AEP Texas' Outage Map showed these outages:

• more than 3,800 people on the island
• more than 2,400 in the Flour Bluff area
• more than 9,000 in the Southside
• more than 9,800 in the Bay Area
• more than 3,300 in the Central City
• more than 500 in downtown Corpus Christi
• more than 2,000 in the Northside
• More than 3,900 in Northwest/Calallen area
• More than 3,700 in Gregory-Portland 
• More than 4,100 in Aransas Pass 
• More than 6,500 in Rockport-Fulton
• More than 400 in Ingleside
• More than 4,900 in Port Aransas 

Winter weather:2 million without power as 'rolling outages' form due to record demand during Texas winter storm

When will power come back? AEP Texas directed to increase number of service interruptions

HOW LONG WILL OUTAGES LAST?

There is no listed restoration time.

As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, there were about 375,031 AEP Texas outages in south and west Texas.

AEP is also conducting controlled rotating outages through Wednesday, according to a news release. 

At 8:28 a.m. Wednesday, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) directed companies to continue the outages to avoid a large-scale outage and prevent long-term damage to the electrical system, the release states. 

"AEP Texas began rotating the areas affected so that consumers are impacted for a limited amount of time -- typically 30 minutes to an hour," the release reads. "The amount of time required to restore service could be delayed in some cases due to system and weather conditions."

The controlled outages are expected to continue for the next 24 hours. 

"AEP Texas continues to work with ERCOT to address the situation; however, it is too early to project when the situation will ease and the number of outages will begin to decrease," AEP said in the release. "Customers should be prepared to remain without power for at least the rest of the day."

AEP asks customers who lose power to turn off heating and large appliances to allow a smother service restoration. Once power is back on, customers should switch devices back on gradually over 30 to 40 minutes, the release states. 

"Taking this step will help prevent a sudden surge in demand after power is restored, which could cause a second outage," the release reads. 

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Alexandria Rodriguez covers breaking news and crime in South Texas. Support local news by checking out our subscription options and special offers at Caller.com/subscribe