PINEVILLE, La. – Cleco Power completed power restoration on Sunday Feb. 6 after an ice storm knocked out power to approximately 36,400 of its customers in the central and south central areas of Louisiana.

“All of our customers, especially those in the rural areas, have been patient, and that has made a big difference in our work,” said Anthony Bunting, vice president of customer service and energy delivery. “Ice storms are frustrating for everyone with their recurring outages and tree damage to our lines.”

Approximately 400 Cleco workers concentrated in central Louisiana finished up the remaining repairs in Rapides and Grant parishes which were the hardest hit areas.

Power outage reports started in the early morning hours of Friday, February 4. Cleco crews were able to restore power to approximately 75 percent of affected customers and substantially complete restoration in south central Louisiana Friday evening.  Weather conditions didn’t improve as quickly in central Louisiana, and customers continued to report new outages late Friday and into Saturday.

 “The freezing rain and temperatures resulted in our crews restoring power to the same areas multiple times, and the combination created even more outages as tree limbs kept falling under the weight of the ice,” Bunting said.

Rural areas experienced outages on cross-county lines in more remote areas, requiring off-road equipment. Cleco replaced approximately 70 broken poles, 80 broken crossarms and 50 transformers as part of the winter storm repairs.

“We know that it is never easy to go without electricity, especially in the cold temperatures we’ve seen in the past few days,” said Bunting.