Power Outages Reported All Over San Angelo

Lights are out all over town this evening as heavy thunderstorms shutter the city.

At the moment, AEP is reporting outages in three zip codes, affecting 2,122 customers in 76901, 1,853 customers in 76903 and 1,451 customers in 76904. Representatives from the company were not available at the time of writing to answer questions about the outages, however those without power should report to the electric provider, not the police. 

Motorists as usual are advised to "turn around, don't drown", and to avoid all low water crossings. Visibility at the moment is extremely low, so those who must drive are urged to slow down and seek alternate routes if water has pooled.

Traffic lights that are not functioning should be regarded as stop signs.

Update 9:20 p.m.

Power has been restored to the vast majority of customers and outages are currently only affecting one customer in 76901, 81 customers in 76903, 77 customers in 76904 and 23 customers in 76905.

Storms appear to have also subsided.

Update 10:15 p.m.

Fred Hernandez of AEP said there are still 108 customers without power, and that lightning was the likely cause of most outages. 

"Our system is designed to take a shot of lightning," Hernandez said. "We have waht's called lightning arrestors on there."

Hernandez said the system can take some lightning, but permanent damage is possible if it gets a heavy dose.

Since lightning is still striking, crews have not yet headed out to assess damage, but if there are poles or transformers down or anything else that needs to be immediately prepared, the work will begin tonight, he said. 

Trees are the biggest problem, he added, as high winds tend to blow down branches that hit lines and other equipment. If regular tree trimming is done, the likelihood of having a branch hit a line is reduced.