LUFKIN — Thousands of East Texans remain without power days after a winter storm paralyzed most of the state over the weekend. Many may be without power until Sunday as utility workers traverse icy roads in dense forests to restore power.
Winter Storm Fern spread across the U.S. from New Mexico to the Northeast over the weekend, leaving thick layers of ice and snow in its wake. Residents across Texas saw temperatures drop below freezing and power outages that lasted anywhere from a few minutes to days.
East Texas was the only region in Texas to lose power for an extended period of time.
Misty Gulley, a school cafeteria worker in Panola County, has been without power since 7:30 a.m. Saturday. She has relied on a gas-powered generator to keep warm.
“Once I run out of gas, I’ll be in trouble,” she said. “Going to get more is an issue with road conditions, and the cost to keep it running is an issue.”
Panola County is part of the stretch of counties near the Louisiana border that remain without power. Shelby County, which is directly south of Panola County and home to about 24,000 people, saw the most ice accumulation in the state, which resulted in downed power lines, poles and trees, said Brittney Ford, the communications director for the Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative.
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The Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative has the highest number of outages in the state and has been working for days to fix hundreds of lines and poles across eight counties. As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the cooperative still had 10,688 customers without power — about 25% of its customers.
Certain areas in East Texas affected by recent winter weather are served by electric cooperatives, which are different from corporations like Oncor or Xcel that serve larger urban areas like Amarillo and Dallas. They’re member-owned and operate on a not-for-profit basis. Co-ops usually serve rural areas. The co-ops rigorously prepare for extreme weather, said Julia Harvey, the vice president of government relations and regulatory affairs for the Texas Electric Cooperatives.
“They do everything they can to prepare for every eventuality,” Harvey said. “And the reality is, in certain areas of the state, differing weather patterns pose different risks, and the rural nature of the systems operating on private land with tall trees impacted by ice outside of cooperative rights-of-way can make restoration challenging.”
Deep East Texas is a rural, heavily wooded region with pine trees that reach a hundred feet into the sky. The region is also home to dense vegetation and swamps that make accessing power lines a tall order, even with easements. Maintaining power lines in non-disaster situations is doable, but difficult. Fixing them is time-consuming and labor-intensive, said Ford.
“We have replaced approximately 30 poles thus far, and 200 cross arms,” Ford said. “We have assessed that we have probably 150 poles and 400 cross arms remaining that need to be replaced.”
The cooperative has been receiving support from other cooperatives across the region and state. There were more than 300 crew members on the ground Tuesday morning.
Ford said they hope to have power restored sooner than Sunday, but the cooperative is trying to be realistic and transparent about the feasibility of doing so.
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