SHREVEPORT, La., Aug. 30, 2021 – Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) is sending crews to assist other utilities which sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Ida.

“Just as we had help from our American Electric Power sister companies and many other contractors in past storms like Hurricanes Laura and Delta, we provide assistance to other utilities,” said Drew Seidel, SWEPCO vice president of Distribution Region Operations. “Working through a mutual assistance network, we have been asked to provide approximately 200 distribution line and support personnel to Entergy Louisiana.”

SWEPCO company and contract crews based in the Shreveport, Valley, Longview, Texarkana and Fayetteville Districts will be traveling mid-week to join Entergy’s recovery from the Category 4 hurricane.

“SWEPCO employees and contractors will be working to get the lights back on as safely and quickly as possible for folks in hard-hit communities who need our help,” Seidel said. “At the same time, we will remain ready to handle outages here at home,”

SWEPCO was prepared for significant outages from Ida and is restoring service to the fewer than 100 customers remaining from the 3,100 who lost power Sunday, along with some outages unrelated to the storm today.