PINEVILLE, La. - Cleco has restored power to 78 percent of the nearly 20,000 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.  We had a lot of damage to our system, including broken poles and downed wire,” said James Lass, general manager of distribution operations and emergency management.  “While our crews are making progress, some customers will remain without power through the night.”

Currently, 5,700 customers are without power.  Cleco expects to restore power to 3,100 customers tonight and anticipates the remaining 2,600 customers will be restored by tomorrow afternoon. 

Customers count for overnight outages:

“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.