More than 100,000 people were without power across East Texas since last week’s severe storms.
Local power companies don't expect restoration for another several days for many communities, just as excessive heat warnings go into effect.
"It's been unbearable,” said Mount Vernon resident Leigh Johnson, who hasn’t had power for about three days. "It's been horrible because it's like, the heat index has been so bad that literally, we're having to sit in the cold baths to cool ourselves down. Our animals as well, we're having to stick them in the bathtub just to keep them from having a heat stroke, it's been that bad.”
With the sweltering heat bearing down families, organizations are handing out free water and ice to make the wait for electricity just a little more bearable.
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“It’s really tough and what we’re doing is relatively small to what they’re going through,” said Sandra Miller, VP district manager for district 2 of the Brookshire Grocery Company. “But we’re hoping it makes a difference in their life today and tomorrow and each day that we were able to do it.”
At Brookshire's Grocery in Mount Vernon, workers handed out cooked, ready-to-eat hot meals through their community kitchen.
The chain has also been handing out truckloads of free ice to hot customers in several cities.
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"Without the ice, they're going to lose everything that they have in the refrigerators and freezers. So it's critical just for them to be able to survive right now get some ice, water, and food,” said Miller. “Just talking to many of the customers as they’ve been coming through, they’ve been thankful that they don’t have to grill today out in the heat."
Much of the region has been without power since late Thursday night and early Friday morning when powerful storms ripped through the area bringing down power lines.
At one point, more than 110,000 people were without power across East Texas to Shreveport and beyond.
"I can't use my breathing machine,” said Elaine Morgan, who suffers from asthma. “I have a couple of more pumps, so I'm hoping that the electricity comes on real soon."
According to Wood County Electric Cooperative, the worst damage is around Mount Vernon and south toward Winnsboro and Tyler, where entire transmission systems are having to be rebuilt.
In a Sunday afternoon post on Facebook, they issued the following update:
We currently have 4,511 outages. Crews have made extremely good progress and we are grateful to have additional men from Trinity Valley EC and Cherokee Co. EC. As they continue to work to get everyone on, some new outages may transpire so please be patient as we try to get everyone on. Here are some details on specific areas.
Ben Wheeler/Van Zandt County: Continuing work on the last of the broken poles. Predicting restoration today.
Red Springs: Predicting restoration today.
Quitman/Lake Fork/Myrtle Springs regions: Continuing work. Predicting restoration today.
East of Winnsboro, Morris Chapel, and South Franklin areas: Crews continue to pick up line, and replace cross arms and poles. Lots of work yet here to do. No time predictions yet but they are making good progress.
Como region: Crews continue work. Predicting restoration today.
Mount Vernon areas, Titus County and North Lake Bob Sandlin areas (1.3K meters) Cypress Springs (1.2K meters), and Hawkins (1.6K meters): Crews will be working in the area to remove trees/pick up lines and reconstruct our distribution system to prepare for when transmission feed is restored from AEP/SWEPCO. Damage to their transmission system that brings power to the region was significant. They are publicly stating outage durations lasting up to Friday, June 23. We still do not have any information from them about their transmission of electricity to us.
Residents can click here to view the outage map and track progress.
Updates keep changing but some of the estimates show restoration not happening until Wednesday, June 21 or Friday, June 23. Temperatures are expected to cross the century mark throughout the week.
"We know lots of times the electric company will give us the worst-case scenario so we're hoping it's on earlier than that,” said Miller.
Meantime, the cleanup from storm damage continues. In Winnsboro, this huge tree smashed into a family's home.
"We’ve had branches come down but never expected a whole tree just to uproot itself,” said the homeowner.
In Longview, Kilgore, and Jacksonville, Texas, communities are cleaning up from downed trees and major flooding.
For now, families are taking what they can get to prepare for the heat wave ahead...
"It's wonderful, community service is great. It's what we need,” said a woman getting a hot meal in Mount Vernon.
Local fire departments have also been handing out free water and ice. The Texas Division of Emergency Management is even responding to the area to coordinate a task force with local first responders.
The fire marshal in Mount Vernon said they need volunteers to help distribute supplies. The Mt. Vernon Fire Department is located on 330 Hwy. 37.
The American Red Cross East Texas chapter is also providing food, water, shelter and replacing medicines and clothing for those impacted. Volunteers are currently working with local county and city disaster officials in addition to assessing homes that have received damage.
Cooling centers have been set up at the following locations:
- Quitman FD, 413 E Goode St, Quitman
- Longview Library, 222 W Cotton St, Longview
- Emmanuel Church, 831 TX-179 Loop, Pittsburg
- Waskom VFD, 185 E Texas Ave, Waskom
“Our Red Cross volunteers from right here in Tyler, Longview, Gilmer and so many other communities were on the job immediately,” said Karen Holt, executive director for the Red Cross East Texas Chapter. “We are talking with residents and our friends and want to help them find moments of peace and know that people do care about them.”
If your home was impacted by the storms on Thursday and you need shelter, food, water, or replacement medicines or clothing, please call 800-RED-CROSS (800-733-2767) and press option 4 for help.
If you lose power, please call your power provider:
- Upshur County Power – 866-804-1674
- Southwestern Electric Power Company – 888-216-3523
- Oncor Power – 888-313-4747
