Get ready for winter storms and power outage tips from SWEPCO
As winter approaches, the potential for significant weather challenges becomes a topic of discussion, especially with forecasts predicting severe storms. Michael Corbin of SWEPCO outlines crucial preparations residents should undertake to ensure safety and minimize disruption during adverse weather conditions.
With predictions of winter storms, SWEPCO is actively monitoring the situation. The company has assembled a dedicated team of meteorologists who continuously analyze weather patterns to anticipate potential impacts on the electrical grid. Corbin emphasizes that residents should not wait until the storm arrives to prepare. Instead, taking proactive measures can make a considerable difference in maintaining safety and comfort.
Residents are encouraged to secure essential supplies, which include medications and backups for medical devices. Keeping devices charged, particularly smartphones and tablets, is vital, as power outages can occur without warning. Corbin warns that these outages could last for hours, highlighting the importance of being ready well in advance of any predicted storm.
SWEPCO has crews on standby, prepared to respond should outages occur. These crews consist of both local personnel and contractors ready to assist in restoration efforts. The situation is being monitored closely, and as conditions evolve, further resources may be mobilized depending on the severity of the storm. Corbin notes the potential for mass outages, particularly if ice forms. Ice poses a significant threat to the electrical infrastructure, leading to more extensive and prolonged outages compared to lighter, drier snow.
Understanding that different regions may face varying levels of impact, SWEPCO is prepared to adjust its response strategies. The challenges posed by ice storms require a tailored approach based on localized conditions, especially in areas with a higher likelihood of severe weather. For communities in central and southwest Louisiana, Corbin discusses the specific preparations being made, ensuring crews are strategically positioned for an efficient response.
In addition to hardware readiness, there's also the concern of increased energy demand during winter storms. Residents may need to use supplemental heating systems, leading to increased electricity usage. Corbin advises those with heat pumps to activate their emergency heat settings to maintain comfort during extreme cold. He brings attention to the unique challenges posed by heavy snowfall, which can impact travel routes for repair crews, further complicating restoration efforts during severe weather.
Preparation goes beyond stocking supplies; it's essential for residents to stay informed about potential outages and restoration timelines. The SWEPCO app provides real-time updates on outages and recovery efforts, helping customers stay in the loop. This communication becomes even more critical in the wake of weather events, making awareness and readiness key components for navigating potential challenges this winter.
As the forecast evolves, the focus remains on public safety. Ensuring that critical services like hospitals and emergency response teams remain operational is a top priority during storms. Restoration efforts follow a structured protocol designed to maximize efficiency and safety, addressing the most pressing outages before moving to residential services.
With unpredictability in winter weather and the impact it has on everyday life, readiness can greatly alter outcomes. By taking early action and developing a plan, residents can better navigate the potential aftermath of severe weather, keeping their families safe through the challenges winter may bring.
Transcript
Note: This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube. Please be aware that there may be spelling or transcription errors.
michael corbin swepco guy welcome back good to see you my friend good morning good to be here so so what did richard lewelling weather channel epic and crippling winter storms storm that must not sound good to you michael corbin i would imagine swepco has its own team of meteorologists or somebody they're calling every 15 minutes what are you guys looking at what plans are being made we do have our own team of meteorologists and we are making epic plans ourselves richard is not just an outlier a weather outlier and coming up with some crazy forecast it sounds like he's pretty accurate and you know this is the year where we've had two hurricanes and a snowstorm last month so we're we're getting pretty good at this and and we've got the planning down michael what can people do today to prepare i mean you know you don't you don't want people out there trimming trees around your power lines right no and what we want people to do is is start making precautions now don't wait till saturday night don't wait till sunday morning if you rely on medications go get the refills that you need if you have medical equipment make sure that you've got charged up batteries make sure your ipads and iphones are charged up and you've got backup power if you need it because if if this comes in as predicted we could have have mass outages you know for hours at a time and people need to be ready for that what kind of crews you got on standby like like guys coming in from texas again and stuff like that you got 10 000 guys at the ready right now we have all of our uh sweatco crews ready to go all of our contractors that we normally work with we've asked them to be on standby and as it gets a little closer we'll make the determination of do we need to bring people in from other states okay michael you said something right before that you said mass outages i don't think i've ever heard a swepco person say that before mass outages sounds like an entire community could get hit could be without power are you worried about that well what we're worried about is if we have ice ice is devastating to the electrical grid if we just have snow it will not be nearly as bad and what our folks are saying right now is it's going to be a dry snow unlike the very wet snow we had last month and dry snow is not as damaging uh to the tree limbs and to the power grid but you know we have to plan for the worst and hope for the best in every situation richard llewelling said central louisiana and southwest louisiana is looking for a crippling ice storm that's a different ball game and you have crew you have folks that have swepco in parts of those areas too right we do provide service down to uh leesville so we have we'll have people staged down that way and we may very well have one set of uh scenarios up here in the northern part of the state and another in the southern part of the state and we have to approach those differently what kind of added demand because we were talking during the break that electricity just like just like anything else a finite product what kind of added demand i would think you guys are looking at man it's it's it's you know like my thermostat alone i keep it on 74 but you know what it's going to be harder to keep it on 74. you know we have plenty of power in our region and and that's not an issue one of the things that always bothers me when we have a storm roll through is you get that call from an elected official in a in a rural parish you know miss smith is on oxygen she's on her last bottle she doesn't have backup what can she do and if a tree limb had fallen on a on a line in a normal day we can go out and help miss smith but when you have circuits that are out and we have tree trees down all over the place you know there's there's just nothing that we can do we can't run an extension cord tour so that's why we really want people to prepare to download the swepco app which will if they have an outage we'll give them a update of when we expect power to be back on and and provide some other information for them for those like me that i have a i have one of those heat pump systems or whatever that has a little button that you put it on for emergency heat that really runs my swepco bill up can you help us out can you give us a break because i'm not because my regular heat is not going to be probably sufficient when we get to nine degrees michael yeah you know our houses just aren't built for single digit temperatures and that's that's just the bottom line you know we're not like houses in the midwest why would they be right well that's right would be a silly cost this is completely unusual for us but if you have if you have a heat pump in your house which usually those thermostats have an emergency heat button turn it on because the heat pump is not nearly as efficient once it gets down below 32 degrees okay do you anticipate that the snow let's let's three four five six inches i don't know on in into monday morning uh will that hinder trucks at all i trucks are pretty big there's a lot of things that we have to look at and you know one of them is traditionally i-49 and i-220 are closed down and there's been times where um i-49 between shreveport and natives have been closed for almost a week so that would take our crews that we need to move around and have them on smaller roads slows slows down that time a little bit the other thing that we have especially nakedish south is much of our distribution system is in very rural areas and um there's a lot of standing water uh we dealt with alligators back during the hurricanes oh boy and and now you're going to have not only have we had heavy rain all year now you're going to have snow and melting snow so access becomes profitable workers pardon me i don't think for the workers nine degrees it's just whoa man brutal they've got enough socks for that they're heroes that's all i can say and especially those who come in from you know places like florida and um they they get quite a shock but they literally got a jacket i can wear because when we have um severe weather your crews can't go out i mean if there's an active thunderstorm brewing i mean you can't send your crews out does that translate if it's still snowing can you not go out because he's talking about we could be snowing it could be snowing for five hours yeah it's a little bit different it really depends on safety and where the outage is and what we do our regular protocol is we're going to fix a repair faults in our transmission and major distribution lines first then we go to public safety hospitals police stations communication roberts systems not my house i shouldn't say that is the mayor's house on that list the mayor's house is not singled out but once once we take care of public safety and and during that time we're making those top level repairs we're out assessing what's the other damage what can we do and it's basically how do we get the most people owned for each repair speaking of repair you got a number of the of the number of men women at al that will be working this weekend if needed we don't have or i don't have that number yet uh but i would suspect that um you know we're already at a thousand and it will probably go up if this thing plays plays out like we've got time for one more question yeah and you're in your history i mean you you're not a long-term swept co person but you've you i'm sure you know a little bit about the history i don't think we've seen anything like what they're saying is coming have we no usually our snow events are one day you know and that's it we have had some some multiple multiple day ice storms and as i said earlier those are the most devastating to us um but you know we're lucky right now the trees haven't butted out yet so the trees aren't quite as heavy as they would be um and yeah we had a little not gonna go a part of me that your your guys are looking at it and saying it looks like it's going to be a dry lighter yes that's what we're hoping for dry light snow
More From News Radio 710 KEEL
