PINEVILLE, La. – Cleco is making progress with restoration of outages in the central Louisiana area. Cleco has restored power to 41 percent of its customers. At the height of the storm, Cleco had 31,000 customers without power.

“As the ice on the trees begins to melt, limbs are hitting our lines as they snap back to normal position from under the weight of the ice,” said Anthony Bunting, vice president transmission and distribution operations. “We have seen some outage numbers decrease only to increase again. We appreciate our customers’ patience as we continue to make steady progress with this restoration effort.

“Unfortunately, we will have some customers without power through the night,” said Bunting. “We expect to have the majority of our customers restored tomorrow with a few customers in outlying areas seeing restoration on Friday.”

Below are times of expected power restoration by town:

Thursday mid-day: Effie, Moreauville, Cottonport, Mansura, Boyce, Hineston, Sieper, Glenmora, and Elmer

Thursday evening: Bunkie, Turkey Creek, Ville Platte, Evergreen, Pine Prairie, St Landry, Alexandria, Lecompte, Forest Hill, Woodworth, Cheneyville, Simmesport, Hessmer, Pineville, Deville, Pollock, Ball, and Dry Prong.

As of 5 p.m., Cleco reports the following outages:

Cleco urges customers to use caution around downed power lines. Stay away and call 911 or Cleco at 1-800-622-6537.