Tornado, Storm Winds Knock Out Power

About 1,500 members of Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative living in portions of northern Craig and Ottawa Counties lost electric service in the aftermath of a deadly tornado on Saturday evening.

Crews worked overnight on Sunday and restored power to more than 400 homes.

Cooperative Officials say early damage assessments indicated 100 broken poles and scattered individual services system-wide. They reported no primary distribution facilities, substations and main feeders, were affected.

"Our disaster recovery plan has been implemented," said Rick Shurtz, NEOEC's Manager of Operations. "Damage in these areas is significant, however, and has made initial progress difficult."

NEOEC officials assured all service, right-of-way, and contract crews will continue working until the last home is restored. They warned that great caution should be exercised in storm-damaged areas, and that areas where downed lines are present should be avoided at all cost.

Outages can be reported by calling Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative at 1-800-256-6405.