AEP Texas crews made significant progress on Thanksgiving in reducing the number of remaining outages in west Texas in the aftermath of the last weekend’s ice storm.  As of 4 p.m. today, the total of remaining outages had dropped to approximately 140 as compared with 470 this morning and 7,300 at the peak of the outages.

The largest concentration of outages remains in the McCamey area where approximately 105 customers remain without electric service.  The approximately 35 other outages are evenly divided among the Ponder Kennedy, Ft Davis and Alpine areas.

Customers who remain without power are asked to call the AEP Customer Solutions Center at 1-866-223-8508 to ensure that AEP Texas is aware of their outage.

Although the number of outages continues to drop, AEP Texas crews still are making substantial repairs to utility poles damaged by the ice storm.   For example, in one area south of Marfa, crews are preparing to repair 40 poles serving less than five customers.

“The large area we serve in west Texas has been as big a challenge over the last few days as the rough terrain,” said Fred Hernandez, AEP Texas community affairs manager.   McCamey and the Alpine area are almost 180 miles apart, which has presented a unique set of logistical and planning issues. At the same time, community leaders, area news media and our customers have been extremely supportive.  Everyone realizes this ice storm affected all of us together.”

Given the nature of the remaining outages, restoration activities could continue through the weekend in a few cases.