SEQUOYAH COUNTY, Okla. — UPDATE:
As of 7:30 a.m on Tuesday (July 14), OG&E reports outages are down to 3,200 customers.
OG&E says it expects power to be restored today for all remaining customers.
The company says it expected to have power restored to Muldrow last night but found more damage in the area than anticipated.
As crews finish work in one area, they are reassigned to join crews in those areas where there are still have outages.
So far crews have replaced 117 poles, 64 cross-arms and 93 transformers.
The storms on Saturday (July 11) caused outages for 77,000 customers.
Original Story:
Severe storms knocked out power for thousands of residents in the River Valley over the weekend.
Sequoyah County Emergency Management Director, Steve Rutherford, says it could be as late as Tuesday evening before power is restored to all customers.
The electric company has 1,100 employees working on restoration.
OG&E crews have replaced 90 poles, 41 cross-arms and 67 transformers.
According to the latest numbers from OG&E, around 11,000 Oklahoma residents still have no electricity. Around 2,500 of those without power are in LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties.
LeFlore County Emergency Manager Kim Wheeler says OG&E workers are clearing fallen tree limbs from power line, the first step to restoring power.
"There are lots of trees down, and this is a very widespread rural area, and you've got trees down on power lines and we have had to close multiple roads," Wheeler said.
Wheeler says they are having to put the most at-risk individuals up in nearby hotels. Usually, they would have relief centers around the county, but COVID-19 is preventing that from happening.
"Normally we would have cooling stations where they could come and charge their equipment, the ones on oxygen can plug in their machines there, but with the COVID the Red Cross doesn't want to open a shelter like that," Wheeler said.
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