DFW homes, businesses struggle with continued power outages amid severe weather

Another round of severe weather on Sunday night left more homes and businesses without power in Dallas County.

Following the strong thunderstorms, Oncor reported that as of 9 p.m. Sunday, 8,855 customers in Dallas County were without power, an increase from 6,988 customers at noon.

The company had aimed to resolve tens of thousands of outages caused by days of severe weather by tonight.

At Matthew Scott’s home on Shady Hill Drive in Dallas, cables ran from an outdoor generator into windows as he used his engineering background to try and stay cool after six days without power.

“It’s been bad. We’ve been cramped into one room with a portable air conditioner running,” Scott said.

Tuesday morning’s severe storms knocked out electricity to more than 650,000 people in the Metroplex, with subsequent severe storms slowing down repair efforts.

Scott lost power when a tree limb snapped the line to his house, and he said six days later, Oncor hasn’t given him a timeline for restoring electricity.

In response, Oncor told NBC5 that the company has directed Scott to hire a private electrician to make repairs to his home’s system before service can be restored.

On nearby Davila Drive, David Fox also woke up to day six without power.

Fox took his family out of state for several days, hoping to return to find service restored, but by Friday, they were still in the dark.

It wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that the lights finally came back on.

“Something that we kept thinking about is a lot of people can’t afford to take that trip or go stay in a hotel, a lot of people can’t afford the loss of groceries,” Fox said. “This hits people hard; not everybody is in the same economic class.”

Some of those in need have been turning to Truett Elementary, which the City of Dallas has been using as a resource center for those still without power.

The city’s Office of Emergency Management said the center has helped close to 5,000 people obtain food, clothing, and other essentials since Saturday morning.

“There’s a lot of folks out there that need assistance, particularly those of us that are elderly and unable to do it for themselves,” said John Patterson, Manager for Plans and Readiness with the Dallas OEM.

During a flash flood warning across the DFW area Sunday night, Oncor posted a notice that the company was monitoring the storm system and would be working to restore power as needed.

Dallas emergency officials told NBC5 that aid groups could continue providing resources to storm victims if the outages persisted.

“Just reaching out and putting their arms out and helping people in their time of need,” said Patterson.

NBC 5 reached out to Oncor to ask if there was an updated timeline for when outages connected to this week’s storms were expected to be fixed and for a response to concerns from people who’ve been without power since Tuesday.

“There is an issue with our notification systems, and we are actively working to correct it. We understand that this has caused some confusion for our customers,” an Oncor spokesperson said in a statement. “Our goal is to always keep our customers informed about the status of their outage.”

“Our crews are continuing to work throughout the night, and at this time, we are not changing our timeline for when we hope to have all outages connected to this week’s storms resolved,” the statement continued. “We recognize the challenges of being without power after such a devastating storm, and we appreciate our customers’ patience. Oncor personnel will continue working around the clock until all of our customers are restored.”

“In the interim, customers can visit Oncor.com or our Storm Outage map at stormcenter.oncor.com for available information.”