OPPD continuing restoration work with reinforcements

More reinforcements have arrived to help Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) restore power to all customers as quickly and safely as possible. 

Our field workers and contractors made good progress overnight and have now restored more than 75% of affected customers as of 11:30 a.m. There are 33,768 still without power. 

At the outage’s peak, we had 106,000 customers without power. But because we were able to restore some customers while the storm was still happening, and causing outages elsewhere, the total number of customers affected was 132,000. That makes it the fifth-biggest outage in OPPD’s history. 

We’re working just as hard today to resolve the remaining outages. And now, we have an additional 300 workers provided by our mutual aid partners, some from as far as Kentucky. Our own on-the-ground team includes line technicians, troubleshooters, cable splicers, underground construction specialists and our contractors, L.E. Myers and Watts Electric. Our damage assessment and wires-down teams are out as well to ensure the most efficient response possible. 

We expect that today’s sunnier, warmer weather will help accelerate some of the work. However, we ask for customers’ continued patience. The damage was so severe and widespread, with hundreds of power poles damaged, that we needed to order additional poles from suppliers in other states. Those shipments are on their way. This is the third consecutive week that we’ve seen a major weather event, which contributed to the need for more materials. 

As a reminder, customers can report outages online at oppd.com, via our OPPDConnect app or by calling 1-800-554-6773. 

If you encounter a downed power line or wire, stay far away and always assume that is live and dangerous. Contact OPPD right away. 

We’d like to thank the mutual aid partners who have arrived to help: Evergy Electric; Evergy Capital Electric; Alliant Energy/WPL - Michels; LG&E/KU - 5 Star Electric; Victory Power Services; MidCon Energy; L.E. Myers; Watts Electric; and High Voltage.

Estimated Restoration Times: We again want to thank everyone affected for their patience as we work to restore every customer. The storm created numerous challenges, and we weren’t able to send workers to some areas due to unsafe conditions and impassable roads. Extensive damage in both rural areas and the Omaha metro further complicated matters. 

We try to be as transparent as possible with our estimated restoration times (ETRs) and felt that a district-wide ETR of Monday was prudent and conservative so that customers could plan accordingly. We believe most customers will be restored before then. We also hope to have more specific ETRs for customers soon. 

Replacement SNAP Requests: OPPD is working with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to ensure that customers affected by the storms who participate in the SNAP Program have timely access to replacement benefits. SNAP recipients should contact AccessNebraska at 402-595-1258 or 1-800-383-4278 to see if they are eligible. Recipients may qualify if they had a power outage lasting more than four hours for refrigerated food or 24 hours for frozen food.