AEP To Restore Power to 95 Percent of Residents by Tonight

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS -- On Saturday, one day after the disastrous Friday night storm, AEP Texas crews continued to make progress in restoring electric service to the San Angelo area. In a statement released late last night by Larry Jones from AEP Texas Corporate Communications, around 1,400 customers remained without power as compared to the 15,500 who lost power during the peak of Friday night's storm.

AEP Texas estimates that by 10 p.m. on Sunday, if not sooner, crews will have restored power to 95 percent of the customers impacted by the storm. Service restoration for most of these customers is anticipated to come much earlier.  

Jones says the restoration effort will continue until all customers have power.  However, the 95 percent level is considered the AEP Texas benchmark where normal day-to-day activities can resume as the remaining outages are addressed.  

The massive power outage has brought approximately 100 AEP employees and contractors to San Angelo to help with the service restoration effort. Crews from Abilene, Del Rio and Laredo are among those who have traveled to the San Angelo area to assist in the effort.  

On Saturday morning, crews began addressing over 100 separate outage issues in the San Angelo area, which needed to be addressed individually to restore power to small groups of customers.  Consequently, the crews have had to focus on activities that restore service to small groups of customers on a case-by-case basis.   

Residents can track progress on the restoration effort by visiting the outage area at www.aeptexas.com. There customers can find a real-time map featuring the most current available information.  Customers can also sign up for outage alerts to receive updates on future outages.

For those still needing supplies, Home Depot has been working together with their corporate leaders to receive emergency shipments of supplies. Yesterday, Home Depot received chainsaws, tarps, bottled water, plastic sheeting, roof coatings and nails. Over the next few days, emergency loads of lumber and fencing will be arriving.