AEP Texas crews continue working to restore power following the storms that swept through parts of west Texas on Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning leaving nearly 17,000 customers without power and flattening a substation in Matador. 

As of 9 p.m. on Thursday, approximately 2,200 customers remained without power: 1,270 in the Abilene area, 530 in the Matador area and 400 in the Hamlin area.   Restoration of power is anticipated later this evening for some customers and by 10 p.m. on Friday, if not sooner, for the majority of everyone else impacted by the storm. 

• If you are still without power, please turn the air conditioning switch and any other large appliances to the off position.  Taking this step will help reduce the chance of a surge in demand as power is restored to your area.  Once power is restored, switch these appliances back on gradually. 
   
• If the storm damaged the weatherhead connection, into your home, you will need to have a licensed electrician make repairs to this equipment before power is restored to your home or facility.
    
• Please continue to consider any downed power lines as energized and dangerous.  Please stay at least 10 feet away while keeping children and pets away.  You can report a downed line by calling 1-223-866-8508. 
   
• Please do not approach crews who are working to restore power.  Their focus has to be on working safely without interruption. 

You can view the most current information about an outage in your area by visiting the outage map on AEPTexas.com (https://do0w5bc7j7xy8.cloudfront.net/external/default.html).