Pamela Sleezer

As of Thursday morning, Beauregard Electric Cooperative Inc. officials said more than 40,000 of its members were without power following the devastation of Hurricane Laura’s impact in Southwest Louisiana.

Officials said nearly all of its 43,000 members served on 5,750 miles of power lines had been impacted.

The cooperative services portions of Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Vernon, Rapides, Jeff Davis and Evangeline parishes.

“We are asking for your patience as we begin the restoration process. Rest assured that we are doing everything we can to restore power to our members as quickly and safely as possible,” BECi General Manager Kevin Turner said in an official release from the cooperative.

While other powerline crews from out-of-state have answered the call for assistance in the area as part of the cooperative’s mutual aid agreement, BECi officials said it could still be some time before restoration efforts can begin, as much of the service area is still impacted by blocked and impassable roadways.

Residents wishing to report their outages or downed lines are directed to call BECi’s toll free outage reporting line 800-367-0275.

Members can also view outages on BECi’s outage map at www.becioutage.org.

 

 BECi outages

Special to the American Press