ARKANSAS, USA — After a week of winter weather, utility companies are ready for another storm and any outages it may bring.
SWEPCO, Ozarks Electric Cooperative, and OG&E all say they have crews on standby as Northwest Arkansas and the river valley experience winter weather.
SWEPCO Provides power to three different states, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, and they're forecasting outages in East Texas and potentially Northwest Arkansas and already have resources, ready to go.
"The storm is really not complete until the last customer's power is restored for us," said Christi Woodworth with OG&E.
Woodworth explained that supplies from last week were already on hand as crews were deployed ahead of this week's storm.
"Knowing that travel was gonna be hard today, we wanted everyone in place before it got difficult," said Woodworth.
"Whenever we have a power outage, we can see it through our Operations Center. We are constantly monitoring those. So if we do have a member that is without power, we are able to make sure that we send a crew out there as quickly as possible," said Ashley Harris with Ozarks Electric.
Ozarks Electric Cooperative monitors over 90,000-meter boxes in Arkansas and Oklahoma. While last week's outages were caused by heavy snow, the utility companies are looking at ice accumulation this week.
"What we really watch is that one-quarter of an inch to half an inch of ice accumulation. That's where things really shift and get a little bit different," Harris.
While tree limbs coming down on powerlines isn't as much of a concern this week, they're keeping an eye out for other causes like car wrecks. They say to immediately notify your utility company of any outages, or even a downed powerline.
"Those are very, very dangerous and you should always treat any line that you see as an energized line," said Michelle Marcotte with SWEPCO "we're preparing and we also encourage our customers to prepare. That can include making sure that your cell phones are charged and that you have an external battery should you have an outage at your home. Also, if you rely on medical devices, we encourage those people to get make a plan."
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