Alabama Power crews make significant progress in restoring service following severe storm
An Alabama Power lineman works to restore electrical service on Friday following Thursday night's storm in Alabama. (Phil Free/Alabama NewsCenter)
Alabama Power crews worked through the night to restore service to tens of thousands of customers affected by the severe weather that tore across the state Thursday evening and early this morning.
More than 100,000 customers across the state had service disrupted at some point as the storm, packing fierce straight-line winds, drenching rain and lightning, moved in from Mississippi Thursday afternoon. The storm killed two people in that state and one woman in Alabama. Authorities said the woman, from St. Clair County, was found dead in her mobile home after storms brought a tree down onto the structure.
As of 3 p.m. today, fewer than 10,000 Alabama Power customers remained without service. The company serves more than 1.4 million customers across the state.
Among the hardest-hit areas are in western sections of the state, including Pickens and Walker counties. In the Aliceville area, the severe weather brought down trees and power poles, and damaged homes and buildings. In that community alone, more than 30 broken power poles are being replaced. Other towns hard-hit include Reform, Jasper, Dora and Carbon Hill.
Alabama Power has deployed additional resources from out of state, in addition to company crews, to speed restoration in the hardest-hit areas. Crews will continue to work until power is restored to all customers who can take service.
Safety is a priority at Alabama Power. Customers are advised to stay away from downed lines and report any hazardous conditions to the company or local authorities. Customers can report outages or hazardous situations at www.alabamapower.com or through the company’s automated outage reporting line at 1-800-888-APCO (2726).
