A. Lee Graham
Reporter
More than 2,500 Oncor employees, contractors and employees from other utilities — some from as far away as Florida — have arrived in North Texas to tackle power outages triggered by the same weather system that’s gripped much of the nation.
“We have our employees and outside utilities and contractors positioned across our service territory, prepared to respond as soon as possible,” said Jim Greer, chief operating officer for Oncor Electric Delivery Co. LLC in a news release.
“With winter storms like this one, we see ice accumulate on tree limbs over time and new outages can continue for several hours, or even days, after the storm blows through as trees finally give way to the weight of the ice. That’s what we are preparing for here,” Greer said.
Greer asks customers to avoid fallen power lines and tree limbs that might be touching them.
“Safety of our employees and the public is our number one priority so it’s important that people always assume that any downed power line is energized and dangerous,” Greer said.
Oncor asks customers to use the company’s mobile and online resources to report outages. Customers without phone service may report power outages via text by texting OUT to 66267. An online outage map — with expected power restoration times — is available at www.stormcenter.oncor.com. Customers also may follow Oncor on Twitter or Facebook for regular updates. More information is available at www.oncor.com.