Outage Update

5/24/19 9:00 am

Day 5 of outage restoration, crews are continuing to restore all meters still affected by the storm. We are down to roughly 20 meters without power, 15 without power on Lowrey Substation and 5 on the Peggs substation.

All preparation work and right-of-way access is cleared. We are now working the outages towards the end of the lines. Crews can now start final construction (setting poles and stringing new wire). These last locations are in some of the roughest terrains with deep ravines. We estimate to have the majority restored this evening. Crews also will be working Saturday on any remaining issues.

5/23/19 9:00 am

LREC crews and mutual aid crews are back at it early this morning. Our broken pole count reached over 60. We hope to have 50% of these poles replaced by today. Most of the remaining outages are associated with broken poles. The right-of-way (tree trimming) crews are still clearing downed trees and debris from the rights-of-way providing access to the work zones. A new obstacle, besides access, is the new pole holes are caving in requiring the crews to use barrels inside the dig area to keep the hole from caving in. We are also monitoring the flood control issues which seem to be constantly changing. Thank you to all the members for your support while crews continue to restore power.

5/22/19 4:30 pm

LREC and mutual aid crews have made significant progress today in rebuilding areas of our system damaged. Peggs Dollar General electric was restored today. We are down to the major construction, rebuilding work, so our outage restoration numbers will drop slower. The crews are diligently working and changing out broken poles and rebuilding lines as quickly and safely as possible. Crews will continue to work into the evening. We appreciate your patience as crews are working long days. We will continue our restoration efforts until all members who can safely receive power have been restored.

5/22/19 9:00 am 

Crews worked through another night, and we restored the electric to several of our members affected. This morning we are down to 129 meters without power. Late last night, around 11:30 pm crews were successful at restoring power to Peggs Rural Water Company.

This morning we have ALL our mutual aid crews and LREC crews in the field working on setting new poles and restoring power to the remaining members. Thank you for your help Alfalfa Electric Cooperative, Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc., and RES Power Line Construction contractors.

We appreciate your patience as we continue to work around the clock to restore power to all our meters that need power. Please stay away from downed power lines.

5/21/19 8:30 pm

Crews have worked through the night and most of today. We have had a very productive day. Meters without power are now down to 620, with the majority in the Peggs area. We are still finding additional broken poles and downed lines.

Members in the Peggs area could be looking at 3-5 days before power is fully restored. 

Our members and employees’ safety is of utmost importance to us. Consider any downed line or pole to be energized and dangerous. Stay clear and report downed lines to our dispatch at 918-772-2526.

5/21/19 4:30 pm

LREC and contractor crews have been working around the clock to restore service to our members. As of 4:30 pm, we are down to 937 meters without power. Due to inaccessibility caused by severe flooding, several rural roads, and highway closings, as well as large trees and other debris, restoration efforts may be delayed in some areas.

LREC damage assessment crews are reporting this afternoon 39+ broken poles, 20 damaged transformers, and five broken cross arms. Crews are still finding more damage in the areas of Peggs and Teresita. LREC would like to inform our members; more mutual aid crews are in route from Alfalfa Electric Cooperative, Cherokee OK and Rural Electric Cooperative, Lindsay, OK.

5/21/19 9:45 am

We have a total of 1, 054 meters without power. 

By substation:

• Coweta 13
• Highland 20
• Locust Grove 61
• Lowery 52
• Peggs 807
• Sleepy Hollow 4
• Whitehorn 56

The LREC lineman and other employees are continuing to work and have worked throughout the night, restoring outages. We have been battling the elements in both working in the storms and not being able to access the damaged poles due to flooding roads, trees, and debris in the roadways.

We have launched multiple damage assessment crews gathering information as quickly as we can. We currently have 1 in-house crew & 2 contract crews replacing broken poles. We have a third contract crew en-route from Texas. We also have mutual aid crews from our neighboring cooperatives on the way to assist LREC as well.

With the information that we have at this time, we are estimating a 3-5 day outage in the Peggs area. We will update this prediction as more information becomes available, and more mutual aid crews arrive.

5/21/19 8:30 am

LREC crews have been working throughout the night. Our system was struck in the Peggs area the hardest. 18 broke poles and other damage. We also have areas in Broken Arrow (Highland) with damage and flooding issues slowing down restoration times.  LREC's engineering team is in the field driving out electric lines from the substation, accessing damage totals. Once we have a total count of damage we will have a better estimate of restoration time, we are also in contact with mutual aid crews to help rebuild. Crews are continuing to access the damage and restore power as quickly and safely as possible. 

Please stay away from downed power lines.

Click here to view our live outage map: goo.gl/KF7Lt9