PINEVILLE, La. – (6:30 a.m.) – Cleco crews made significant progress yesterday and Monday, restoring power to more than half of all customers affected by Monday’s severe weather. 

Cleco has restored power to 7,065 of the roughly 9,500 customers in Rapides Parish who lost electricity after severe weather moved through central Louisiana Monday afternoon damaging transmission structures, substations, transformers, cross arms, poles and power lines.  As of 6:30 a.m., approximately 2,435 customers were without power.

“Our crews have restored power to 74 percent of affected customers, and they’re still working,” said James Lass, general manager of distribution operations and emergency management.  “Our goal is to restore power to the remaining customers who can receive electricity today.” 

Customers whose home or business was structurally damaged by the storm will have to make repairs before their service can be restored.

Cleco brought in additional personnel from unaffected parts of its service territory to assist with clean-up, repairs and restoration efforts.

“We have about 200 line mechanics and 150 tree trimmers working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible,” said Lass.  “The damage in Rapides Parish was significant with the worst being in parts of Alexandria, Pineville, Gardner, Boyce and Hot Wells.” 

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