Over 270 OG&E line crew members, vegetation management personnel and support staff have made significant progress getting power restored for the residents of Jackson Parish, Louisiana. The OG&E team will be headed home next Tuesday, after a 15-day stretch.

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Jackson Parish, La. (Sept. 10, 2021) - The destruction from Hurricane Ida has left residents of Louisiana and surrounding states without electric service for nearly two weeks as the restoration process continues. OG&E’s 270 line workers, vegetation management personnel and support staff have made significant progress getting power restored for the residents of Jackson Parish, Louisiana. The restored power is bringing much needed relief from 90-degree heat and making streets safer to navigate as crews continue cleanup and residents return to their homes.

"When we first arrived there was quite a bit of devastation, more structural devastation than what we had seen before when we were down here with [Hurricane] Katrina,” said Chad Guthrie, Manager of Distribution Construction with OG&E, who is co-leading the utility company’s restoration efforts in Louisiana.

According to Louisiana utility company Entergy, Ida damaged or destroyed more than 22,000 power poles - more than Hurricanes Katrina, Zeta and Delta combined. Despite the challenge of working around debris, downed fences and uprooted trees, OG&E’s crews have been able to make significant progress.

“As of today, we have replaced 110 poles. We have been assigned seven circuits - we work these circuits from the breaker in the substation all the way to the customers’ meters. We have completed all seven of those to 100%,” said Guthrie. “There has been great progress made up to this point.”

Some of the damaged infrastructure includes traffic lights. As more residents return to the area, traffic control has become critical to the safety of the public and restoration crews. Fortunately, police, fire and other emergency officials in the area have been quick to assist electric utility crews as they work to get traffic lights back online. Guthrie expressed his appreciation for the police officers and firefighters supporting the crews’ efforts by blocking and temporarily closing lanes as the lights are repaired.

Thanks to significant progress in their assigned area of Jackson Parish, the OG&E team will be headed home next Tuesday, after a 15-day stretch. The mutual assistance OG&E crews are currently providing in Louisiana is one of many missions the utility has accepted over the years to contribute the expertise and resources of its restoration teams in areas that are experiencing natural disasters. In turn, Oklahoma residents benefit from the same mutual assistance in the aftermath of large, local storms. Entergy System reported its workforce has restored nearly 80% of customers who lost power.

“Our goal from day one was to travel down here and help restore power for as many customers as we could,” said Guthrie. “Part of that goal also was to travel home the same way we showed up: incident and injury free.”

Guthrie described what it is like to see the progress being made: power poles back in the air, traffic lights back on, and returning residents waving in appreciation as the crew drives by in their orange OG&E trucks. First responders and residents have dropped off food baskets for the crews in gratitude, and a few children even tossed around a football with crew members on a break. “You would think that this was in our backyard, the way we've been accepted into this area. We are appreciative to be a part of this, and we understand that when we leave here it is not over for a lot of these residents.”

About OG&E  

Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE), is Oklahoma’s largest electric utility. For more than a century, we have provided customers in Oklahoma and western Arkansas the safe, reliable electricity needed to power their businesses and homes at rates below the national average. Our employees are committed to generating and delivering electricity, protecting the environment and providing excellent service to our 858,000 customers. OG&E has 7,081 MW of electric generation capacity fueled by low-sulfur coal, natural gas, wind and solar. OG&E employees live, work and volunteer in the communities we serve. For more information about OG&E, visit our website at oge.com or follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/ogepower, Instagram: @ogepower and Twitter: @OGandE