Some in Shreveport Could be Without Power All Week
After a long, hot weekend without power in Shreveport Bossier, some residents are starting to see relief with utility trucks and workers beginning to enter neighborhoods and storm damaged areas. Swepco's Michael Corbin told KEEL News around 2800 utility workers arrived in Shreveport from across the country over the weekend, and are being assigned priority areas.
Corbin reminds customers that the damage to their infrastructure is extensive, and the work required to get systems back online is very tedious, he asked residents to please remain patient as crews work to restore power to the devastated community.
“Because we often have to assess what needs to be done, get any trees out of the way, set new poles and hang new wires,” said Corbin.
As of Monday morning, around 79,000 Swepco customers were still without power. It was reported that with over half a million customers in the dark, this is the largest storm in Swepco's history. The last one being the huge ice-storm a few years ago. The storm damage was extremely wide-spread, ranging from Oklahoma through East Texas and throughout Northwest Louisiana. At one point, over 233,000 customers were without power.
Swepco customers as far south as Natchitoches could be without power until tomorrow, while some customers in Shreveport may not get power back until the weekend. Swepco sent a message stating that their estimated time of recovery could be as late as June 24th.
Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prater reminds residents that cooling centers are available for those seeking relief. Centers offer air-conditioning, water, and stations to be able to charge mobile devices.
“The Highland Center for instance we know there were 50 to 75 people that utilized that, I’m not sure about the other churches that have opened up as cooling centers and we are talking about doing some more 24 hour centers to see if we need that and that’s all in the works,” said Prator.
Even as extensive as the damage was locally, Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux said the damage, unfortunately, still isn't enough to qualify for federal assistance for storm victims.
“As of right now we are not optimistic that we will have a FEMA declaration, because of the minimum requirements for that…but mostly the fastest results are going to be through your insurance company,” said Arceneaux.