PINEVILLE, La. – Cleco has restored power to 83 percent of its customers who lost electricity after a destructive ice storm blanketed much of central Louisiana. While the company has made progress, some customers in outlying areas will be without power until sometime Friday.

“We are leading restoration efforts with a two-pronged approach,” said Anthony Bunting, vice president of transmission and distribution operations. “We have large crews working in the most severely-damaged areas and small crews working to restore power to smaller groups of customers. This approach has helped us make significant progress.”

Crews are currently working the hardest hit areas in the parishes impacted by the storm. In some cases, they require off-road equipment to reach downed wire in heavily wooded areas. Improved weather conditions aid these restoration efforts as crews plan to work into the night restoring power.

As of 5:00 p.m., Cleco reports the following outages:

Avoyelles Parish – 1,791
Evangeline Parish – 113
Grant Parish – 505
Rapides Parish – 2,822
Total - 5,231

Cleco continues to remind customers to stay away from downed power lines and to follow manufacturer’s instructions when using a generator. Call 911 or Cleco at 1-800-622-6537 to report a dangerous situation with electricity.