Electric Co-ops Continue Power Restoration Efforts in Aftermath of Winter Storm Fern

Last Updated: Feb. 3, Noon ET

Electric cooperatives in some Southern states were continuing to recover Tuesday from Winter Storm Fern’s destructive ice and heavy snow, making dramatic progress as they slashed total outages from a peak of about 400,000 early last week to about 55,000 by Tuesday morning.

Ice accumulation has been the biggest issue for co-ops as it snaps power lines and poles and topples trees into wires, causing outages that often last for days. Mutual aid crews from co-ops in less affected areas have rushed in to help those suffering the most.

More than 110,000 Americans were without power Tuesday, dropping from more than 1 million at the beginning of last week, according to poweroutage.us, which showed most remaining outages from Winter Storm Fern in the Southern states of Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.

Mississippi co-ops were hit especially hard by the ice storm but were making steady progress in restoring power. About 45,350 co-op members across the state were without power as of Tuesday morning, down from about 160,000 early last week, said Lydia Walters, vice president of communication for the Electric Cooperatives of Mississippi.

In Tennessee, outages had dropped to about 4,600, down from a peak of about 69,000 last week, the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association said Tuesday morning.

Co-ops in Texas, one of the first states in the storm’s path, had more than 2,000 outages on Tuesday morning, according to poweroutage.us—down from 50,000-plus outages at the peak of the damage.

In Louisiana, Northeast Louisiana Power Cooperative in Winnsboro had fully restored power to three of the parishes it serves as of Tuesday morning and had made good progress in two others, according to the co-op’s Facebook page. However, the co-op, which had a peak of nearly 6,600 outages after the storm, was faced with totally rebuilding its badly damaged system to restore power to members in a sixth parish.

“Two main feeder lines in East Carroll Parish are down, impacting approximately 130 damaged poles that serve the area,” the co-op wrote on Facebook. “Because of the extent of the damage, a complete rebuild is required. Materials are arriving, and crews are working to begin reconstruction. We sincerely apologize to our East Carroll members for the extended outage. This is a major restoration effort, and our crews remain committed to restoring power as quickly and safely as possible.”

In Georgia, crews had restored power to all but about 1,200 co-op members as of Tuesday morning, according to Georgia EMC—falling from more than 38,000 outages early last week.

Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were all hit by more snow over the weekend but were restoring power quickly. Co-ops in the Carolinas were down to a total of about 320 outages Tuesday morning.

Kentucky Electric Cooperatives reported about 300 co-op members without power as of Tuesday morning, plummeting from more than 60,000 outages at the peak last week.

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.

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