As of 5 PM Tuesday, May 28, power was restored to all HOEC members after the storms from the weekend. Beginning early Sunday morning, May 26, storms moved north to south through the eastern part of the area knocking out power to more than 1,100 members. Later that day, tornadoes struck Mountain View and moved east along Highway 60 bringing the outage numbers back up to 1,471. HOEC worked Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, identifying the damage and repairing and replacing poles, cross arms, insulators, transformers and lines. There were 46 broken poles across the service area that had to be replaced.
Monday, HOEC crews were joined by crews from Gascosage Electric Cooperative, Se-Ma-No Electric Cooperative and White River Valley Electric Cooperative. Contract crews from Kiowa and Arkansas Electric also assisted with the restoration. HOEC crew and support staff worked throughout the three days to restore power for members. More than 100 personnel inside and out worked the outage, from the crews working the lines to dispatch and engineering taking calls and identifying the issues.
"Thank you to everyone for your patience during the outage," said General Manager Dan Singletary. "The City and County Emergency crews helped clear roads so our lineman could get through. Mountain View Police Department assisted with traffic control during repairs on Y Highway just north of town and many individuals were out clearing roadways as well."
Now that all power has been restored, the crews will be working in the areas doing clean-up. The broken poles and pieces still need to be removed, and overall the areas will be cleared of any electrical debris. Thank you again for your patience and support during this outage.
