Western and central portions of Sequoyah County took a big hit early Saturday morning, as strong winds estimated to be around 70 mph were reported, causing power outages, and power lines and trees to topple to the ground.
After 24 hours or more without power for some residents on Blackgum Mountain, north of Vian, Cookson Hills Electric reported on Sunday morning that pole replacements and other work was being done on the Tenkiller substation.
The electric company said work was being done to Feeder 2, and then work would move to Feeder 1 to replace additional poles. Electricity was reportedly restored to a majority of those residents between Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon, with only a handful of residents still waiting to have their power restored.
Additional electric crews in the Vian area also repaired downed lines and broken electric poles, reporting about 38 outages.
However, Marble City residents were left sweating it out in hot temperatures as their substation could not be repaired until all repairs were made across all distribution lines associated with their substation.
Cookson Hills Electric said crews could not reenergize all of the lines until all the repairs were made, due to the dynamics of the line and the issues causing the reported outages. There were about 59 outages reported in Marble City, according to reports.
Areas south of Muldrow connected to the Sallisaw substation were also reportedly affected, with electric customers having their electric restored between 10 and 11 a.m.
As of press time Monday morning, Cookson Hills Electric reported that they still had about 1,600 customers without power, but were working around the clock to get power restored.
The electric company said other crews were in the area to help, so their customers should not be alarmed if another electric company’s crew came in to work on their power lines; they’re just helping with restoration efforts.
“A big thank you to Gordon Construction Company, Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative and East Central Electric Cooperative for helping out on this outage,” the electric company said on their social media page. “We are also highly grateful to West Tree Services, the Sequoyah County crews helping clear the roadways, and Brad Taylor at the Sequoyah County Emergency Management office for everything.”
Taylor worked to set up cooling stations at the Gore Community Center and Christ the King church in Vian. The Marble City Community building was also set up as an additional cooling station.
“We do not have an estimated time of restoration, but we do know that some areas are going to take longer than others as the terrain is extremely difficult to get equipment to,” the company wrote.
OG&E reported as of Saturday afternoon that about 9,100 customers were without service, down from a peak of more than 20,000 customers, after storms moved through eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas.
OG&E reported Fort Smith was the hardest hit area with widespread damage in other Arkansas communities, including Van Buren, Mountainburg, Charleston, Winslow and Lavaca. Parts of eastern Oklahoma that were impacted including Shady Point, Muldrow, Rock Island and Williams.
