Cleco crews continue working to restore power to remaining customers
Power restored to 82 percent of customers

PINEVILLE, La. – (12 p.m.) – Cleco crews continue to make progress with power restoration following severe weather that moved through central Louisiana Monday afternoon.

Cleco has restored power to 7,756 of the roughly 9,500 customers who lost electricity. As of 12 p.m., approximately 1,744 Cleco customers were without power in Rapides Parish. Most of these customers are in Gardner and parts of Alexandria primarily off of Hwy. 28 West.

“Despite all the damage to our equipment and freezing temperatures, our crews continue to make significant progress,” said James Lass, general manager of distribution operations and emergency management. “We’ve restored power to 82 percent of our customers, and we’re still working. We appreciate our customers’ patience, and thank our crews and contractors for their hard work.”

Cleco has about 200 line mechanics and 150 tree trimmers working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.

Downed Power Lines & Generators

• Cleco reminds customers that downed power lines should always be treated as if they are energized. Stay Away from downed lines.

• Read and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for proper use of a portable generator.

• Operate a generator in a well-ventilated area.

• Never run a generator indoors.

• Plug appliances directly into portable generators with grounded extension cords that can handle the load.

• Don't plug a generator cord directly into a wall outlet. A generator can back feed electricity through your electric wiring to the entire Cleco circuit. This can cause injury or even death to a worker attempting to repair that circuit and anyone else who may come into contact with power lines. This also can damage your generator.

For the most up-to-the-minute outage information, visit Cleco’s Storm Center page at outage.cleco.com.