Nearly 70 line and service workers for Public Service Company of Oklahoma were sent to Shreveport, Louisiana this week to help restore power following severe weather that left thousands without electrical power.
They were sent to help sister company Southwestern Electric Power Company. PSO’s Matt Rahn said about 30,000 customers were initially left without power but by Tuesday, the number had been reduced to 15,000. By Wednesday, Southwestern anticipated that 95% of those who lost power would have it back on by the end of the day.
“They’re making some progress, but hopefully these guys can help things move a little quicker,” Rahn told News on 6 in Tulsa. “Crews help out other utilities often times when there’s a big storm because that puts a lot of strain on those resources, and we want customers to get their power back on safely.”
Many of the workers didn’t have much time to recover because they spent the weekend restoring power lost from the Fourth of July storms that left PSO customers without power in Oklahoma.
“They’ve been working hard and have been putting in a lot of hours, but they’re ready to go help out our sister company down in Louisiana,” Rahn said. “It was a priority to help our customers first, and now that we have those extra resources to help out folks down in Shreveport, we’re going to send some crews down there.”
Rahn said the linemen are sacrificing a lot of their time and some missed the July 4th holiday to help with power restoration in Bartlesville.
