PINEVILLE, La. – Cleco has restored power to 98 percent of the 29,000 customers who experienced outages following severe thunderstorms in its central and southern service territory.

“Crews have been working around the clock since the storms hit our area,” said James Lass, manager of distribution operations and emergency management.  “While our crews are making progress, some customers will remain without power through the night.”

Currently, 600 customers are without power.  Cleco expects to restore power to 260 customers tonight and anticipates the remaining 340 customers in Alexandria, Ball, Boyce, Bentley, Colfax, Flatwoods, Gardner, Hineston, Libuse, Pineville, Pollock and Tioga will be restored by tomorrow afternoon. 

“We appreciate our customers’ patience as crews work safely and efficiently to restore power,” said Lass. 

Cleco reminds customers to use caution around downed power lines.  Call 911 or Cleco at 1-800-622-6537 to report unsafe electrical situations.