AEP Texas brought in 140 American Electric Power employees and contractors from surrounding areas to assist the 60 local AEP Texas service techs working to restore power in the Abilene area in aftermath of Monday’s storm.

As of 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, AEP Texas service crews continue working to restore power to the remaining 1,200 Abilene area customers still without power.   AEP Texas is projecting that 98 percent of those 1,200 customers will see power restored by late tonight, if not sooner. 

“We have made significant progress in restoring power to the majority of customers impacted by the storm,” said Greg Blair, AEP External Affairs manager.   “We are reaching the point in our restoration effort where we begin to address small pockets of outages as compared to the areas where we were able to restore service to large numbers of customers by replacing fuses, closing breakers or rerouting circuits.” 

The number of outages reached 24,500 around 9:15 p.m. on Monday evening  as AEP Texas crews worked to restore power and complete initial damage assessments.   Restoration efforts brought the number of customers without power down to 17,780 by 11 p.m. and the number has continued to decline since then.  Damage assessors confirmed that at least 30 distribution poles were damaged by the high winds.   That number is expected to increase as restoration activities and damage assessment continues.

Customers still without power are asked to call 1-866-223-8508 to report any downed power lines or to ensure that AEP Texas is aware of their outage.  Customers are reminded to consider any downed power lines as being energized and dangerous. 

Winds reaching 80 miles per hour along with heavy rains that caused flooded streets and underpasses wreaked havoc on the area.  The thunderstorms began about 6 p.m. Monday evening.  In less than an hour, the National Weather Service reported 2.14 inches at Abilene Regional Airport, with another 0.41 inches recorded the next hour.