PINEVILLE, La., Sept. 5, 2011 – Cleco crews and contractors made progress Monday morning restoring power and repairing damages to 6,000 of the customers affected by Tropical Storm Lee.  Approximately 20,000 customers in eastern, southern and central Louisiana lost power Sunday evening as Lee dumped rain and sent wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour across the area.

“We were able to make repairs to the outages on Saturday and Sunday morning, but later in the day it became unsafe for us to work,” said Anthony Bunting, vice president of customer service and energy delivery. “We are finding broken poles and downed wire, damage typical of a tropical storm. With the extra help we have on hand, we’re going to make significant progress today.”

Cleco has called in contractors as well as crews from other parts of its service territory to assist in restoration. To report an outage call 1-800-622-6537.

Allen 72
Avoyelles 819
Calcasieu 9
Evangeline 491
Grant 1156
LaSalle 105
Rapides 8919
St. Landry 42
St. Mary 13
St. Tammany 2783
Washington 1
Total 14410