With the forecast calling for two-and-a-half days of below-freezing temperatures, Alabama Power is getting ahead of the cold front to minimize interruptions for customers.

Earlier this month, record cold took its toll on equipment, causing small but widespread outages. On Jan. 7, more than 27,000 customers were affected as switches, fuses and other pieces of gear succumbed to the cold.

Alabama Power engineers had concerns about older equipment in northern Jefferson County. In many outage cases, customers can be switched to other sources when there is a power failure, but there were doubts a 2-mile section of wire would be able to handle the additional load. On Jan. 24, engineers decided to replace that 2 miles of line.

Last Friday, the company called 277 customers about an outage planned for Jan. 27. At 9 a.m. today, service was temporarily stopped in the Morris area. More than 90 Alabama Power crew personnel and engineers were involved in the effort to safely replace 2 miles of wire, which was completed in about four hours.

There is no guarantee that everyone’s service will go without interruption in the cold – but Alabama Power is taking steps to ensure that any interruptions are as short as possible.

Monday afternoon, 145 contract linemen deployed from the northern part of Alabama Power territory to areas most likely to see accumulations of snow and ice: Mobile, Enterprise and Eufaula. From there, they will be positioned to quickly get to outages, wherever they occur. Likewise, employee line crews will work Tuesday on standby, with bags packed, ready to move south.

Here is some additional information on how you can better make it through the cold days ahead.