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As many as 125,000 North Texas electricity customers lost power Friday night after powerful storms swept the area, bringing damaging wind gusts and lightning following a day with record-setting heat.
As of Saturday evening, around 23,000 customers were still affected by outages, according to Oncor’s outage map.
Oncor, the utility company that is responsible for distributing power to more than 3.8 million homes and businesses in Texas, said it was working on repairs Saturday.
“Oncor personnel are continuing to assess damages, make repairs, and restore power to customers impacted by recent severe storms,” the company said in a statement issued Saturday.
In Dallas-Fort Worth, most of the outages occurred in Tarrant County, with the southern parts of the county enduring the most significant effects from Friday night’s storms. About 20,000 customers there remained without power Saturday evening, according to Oncor.
Pictures shared by residents on social media show the damage caused by the powerful storms, including downed power lines, scattered debris, fallen trees and broken equipment.
To address the damage, Oncor said personnel began working “as soon as it was safe to do so” and will be working “around the clock” until all power is restored. The company said teams from unaffected regions would assist in repairs.
However, restoration could take some time. Before repairing any equipment, Oncor’s vegetation management personnel said it must remove tree limbs and branches.
Oncor urged its customers to stay safe, reminding people and their pets to stay clear of downed power lines and to call 911 if they see any. Oncor’s statement also reminded customers not to attempt to remove any debris near power lines.
The storms came after North Texans endured extreme heat in the past week. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued multiple conservation appeals, anticipating operating reserves to be low amid high temperatures and high demand on Wednesday and Thursday.
The National Weather Service said showers and thunderstorms are possible again Sunday, mostly west of Interstate 35, which is outside of the immediate Dallas-Fort Worth area.