Storm system knocks out power to more than 309,000 in Midwest, South

April 28, 2016 Wayne Barber Generation

A strong storm system producing high winds and hail knocked out power to 309,377 customers in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, and Louisiana Tuesday evening into Wednesday, April 27.

Wind gusts of 90 miles-per-hour (mph) were reported. As of 3:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, 56,572 customers remained without power, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).

CenterPoint Energy, the hardest hit utility with 125,000 customer outages, said crews were removing debris and trees off power lines to make repairs. The utility expected to have the majority of customers restored by the night of April 27.

Entergy (NYSE:ETR) which reported 37,902 customer outages said all available crews were actively working to restore power.

About Wayne Barber 4201 Articles

Wayne Barber, Chief Analyst for the GenerationHub, has been covering power generation, energy and natural resources issues at national publications for more than 20 years. Prior to joining PennWell he was editor of Generation Markets Week at SNL Financial for nine years. He has also worked as a business journalist at both McGraw-Hill and Financial Times Energy. Wayne also worked as a newspaper reporter for several years. During his career has visited nuclear reactors and coal mines as well as coal and natural gas power plants. Wayne can be reached at wayneb@pennwell.com.