At its peak after the storm on May 28, more than 650,000 customers in North Texas were without power, Oncor said.
DALLAS — Oncor says the May 28 storm that left thousands of residents without power for several days was the worst in terms of outages in the company’s 112-year history. Now Dallas City Council members are calling on Oncor to explain why it took so long to restore power to some areas after the storm.
At its peak, more than 650,000 customers in North Texas were without power, Oncor said.
“From a power outage perspective, this was the second-worst storm in our 112-year history and the costliest storm to hit Dallas County,” Oncor spokesman Greg Crews told WFAA. “We experienced an issue with our notification system. We are actively working to fix it and have provided customers with alternative options to report outages and get more information. We understand this is disruptive to our customers during an already stressful time. Our goal is to keep customers informed of the status of their outages.”
Dallas City Council Member Paula Blackmon, who represents hard-hit East Dallas, called on Oncor to “take immediate steps to address any systemic issues and improve communication with residents and the City of Dallas. One example would be to share outage locations with the City of Dallas and effectively utilize City resources to mitigate the impact to residents’ quality of life.”
“Despite the severity of the situation, power restoration efforts are slow in several areas throughout the 9th District and East Dallas,” Blackmon wrote. “Residents are reporting difficulty getting accurate information about outage status and restoration timelines from the Oncor communications system.”
Blackmon called on Oncor to investigate the reasons for the delay in restoring power.
Subsequent storms that week caused further damage and delayed power restoration, Oncor said in a statement to WFAA.
“These storms caused additional damage, power outages, flooding and caused further delays. Hardest hit areas included communities such as North Dallas, East Dallas and Mesquite. Many of these communities experienced some of the most complex and time-consuming outages, requiring re-establishment of electrical distribution equipment and replacement of poles and transformers,” Cruz said. “Throughout the storm, we communicated with city staff and City Council members, providing ongoing updates. We understand that any outage is difficult, especially when it lasts for multiple days. We are grateful to our customers, our dedicated employees for their dedicated work, and our mutual aid partners for their support.”
Cruz said after the May 28 storm, the Dec. 5, 2013 and June 9, 2019 storms were similar.
Cruz said Oncor pre-positioned personnel and equipment before the storm and began assessing damage and restoring critical infrastructure after the storm.
He said during the outages, Oncor requested and deployed personnel and resources from utilities in nine other states as part of a mutual aid program.
“At its peak, we had more than 11,000 employees and contractors working around the clock to restore power,” Cruz said.
Oncor said it plans to study how its equipment and personnel would perform after a major storm, and was scheduled to meet with city officials ahead of Blackmon’s June 4 memo.
“If changes are necessary, we will implement them immediately to improve our response going forward,” Cruz added.
