Alabama Power on track to complete restoration from damaging storms
Alabama Power crews expect to complete restoration of service to customers today after the Easter Sunday storms. (Dennis Washington / Alabama NewsCenter)
Alabama Power is finishing up restoration efforts following the devastating waves of storms that crossed the Southern U.S. in recent days.
As of 4 p.m., 99% of all Alabama Power customers who lost service due to the storms had service.
Crews are now focused on a few customers, primarily in Blount and Etowah counties, where the storms caused severe damage and where difficult terrain posed additional challenges. Alabama Power said 312,000 customers lost service. All customers who can take service are expected to have their lights on before the day is out.
“We want to thank our customers, our hard-working crews and support personnel, and the crews who came in from other states to help us complete our restoration efforts,” said Kristie Barton, Power Delivery general manager for Alabama Power.
Alabama Power wrapping up service restoration from Easter storms from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
“Our entire company was focused, from before the storms began, on making sure we work quickly and safely, using every available resource, to get the lights back on for our customers,” Barton said. “We always hope and pray for the best, but we prepare for the worst.”
From the moment it was safe, Alabama Power crews were in the field, working around the clock. Less than 20 hours after the storms moved through, crews had restored service to more than a quarter-million customers.
The company brought in nearly 900 experienced personnel from other states to support restoration efforts. By 8 a.m. today, crews had replaced more than 460 poles, more than 250 transformers and more than 2,000 spans of power lines that were damaged or destroyed during the severe weather onslaught.
Information from the National Weather Service shows just how dangerous and damaging the Easter storms were in Alabama and in more than a dozen other states. In Alabama alone, the weather service confirmed that at least 23 tornadoes touched down as waves of severe weather raced through the state all day Sunday and into Monday morning.
In all, the storms – which were still affecting sections of northeast Florida this afternoon – destroyed multiple homes and businesses, caused hundreds of injuries and were responsible for at least 34 deaths from Texas to Tennessee and into the Carolinas. No one was killed in Alabama.
It was the nation’s deadliest tornado outbreak in six years, since April 25-28, 2014, when 35 people were killed in the central and Southern U.S., according to the federal Storm Prediction Center. Preliminary reports indicate at least 60 tornadoes ripped through the Southeast and Atlantic seaboard during this latest outbreak.
Alabama Power encourages its customers to always be weather-aware and to make sure they have an updated plan for severe weather days. Please visit the Alabama Power Storm Center for information about how to be prepared before bad weather threatens, and how to stay safe when severe storms strike.
