Cleco: 64K customers still without power across Louisiana (2 p.m.)

PINEVILLE, La. (KLFY) — 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

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.