In this sweltering heat, thousands are without power in northwest Louisiana from strong storms that hit the area Thursday night and again Sunday morning. SWEPCO spokesperson Michael Corbin says as of Sunday afternoon 99,000 customers in Louisiana were without power. Corbin says the damage to their infrastructure is extensive and the restoration is unfortunately tedious.
“Because we often have to assess what needs to be done, get any trees out of the way, set new poles and hang new wires,” said Corbin.
For SWEPCO customers in the Natchitoches area, power could be out until tomorrow night, for the Shreveport area, some customers may not get power back until the weekend.
Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator says there are cooling centers available
“The Highland Center for instance we know there were 50 to 75 people that utilized that, I’m not sure about the other churches that have opened up as cooling centers and we are talking about doing some more 24 hour centers to see if we need that and that’s all in the works,” said Prator.
For some people, it’s a double whammy, no power and damage to their home from a fallen tree. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arcenaux says unfortunately the damage is not extensive enough for federal assistance for those storm victims.
“As of right now we are not optimistic that we will have a FEMA declaration, because of the minimum requirements for that…but mostly the fastest results are going to be through your insurance company,” said Arceneaux.
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