Aug. 3, 2024, 9 p.m.
Work to bring customers online continues tonight, as 44,703 customers remain without power. Earlier today, OPPD released restoration time estimates, which can be found below. We thank our customers for their patience during this time, as we know how hard it is to be without power. We will continue working as safely and quickly as possible to restore power to all of our customers.
We know it’s tough to understand why some neighbors have power when you don’t. This may happen if OPPD has been able to restore a circuit serving hundreds or maybe even thousands of customers in your area; however, there are still other underlying issues unique to your outage. OPPD prioritizes repairs that restore the greatest number of customers first, moving down to the lengthier repairs needed to restore a smaller group and then to individual house-to-house repairs.
We again want to warn our customers of scammers who may be trying to take advantage of vulnerable customers right now – calling and falsely claiming customers need to pay for reconnection or other equipment or are overdue on bills. Do not fall for it. NEVER pay a stranger during an unsolicited call. ALWAYS hang up the phone and call OPPD directly if you have questions.
4:45 p.m. – Customers began receiving calls this afternoon informing them of estimated restoration times for address. The restoration times ranged from Sunday into next week. Please note, these estimates are based on current conditions and could change if we encounter additional complications in the field. The calls were made to the main number listed on the customer account. If you are still without power and did not get a call, make sure you have reported your outage. Contact information can be updated here.
The estimated restoration times (ETRS) are not geographically based. Some customers in different parts of our service territory will have similar restoration times, while ETRs may differ for others who are relatively close together. This is in line with our process of restoring as many people as we can, as quickly as possible and then working down to individual neighborhoods, homes and businesses.
At this time, there are 47,310 customers still without power. We continue working as safely and quickly as we can to restore those customers and have deployed more people and resources than ever before in OPPD’s history. We will not let up until every customer has been restored following Wednesday evening’s storm.
Here’s how our restoration timeline is looking right now. Of the customers who were still without power this morning:
- Approximately 32,000 customers should expect to be restored by the end of Sunday, barring unforeseen issues. A large portion of that group could potentially be back up yet today.
- Approximately 12,600 should expect restoration by the end of Monday, barring unforeseen issues.
- Approximately 5,800 should expect restoration by the end of Wednesday, barring unforeseen issues.
These estimates may change as our work progresses and we learn more. If that’s the case, we will make another round of automated calls to customers to keep them updated.
12 p.m. – At this time, 51,925 customers are still without power as OPPD and mutual aid crews continue to chisel away at the extensive damage to our system.
We know it’s tough to understand why some of your neighbors have power when you don’t. This may happen if OPPD has been able to restore a circuit serving hundreds or maybe even thousands of customers in your area; however, there are still other underlying issues that are unique to your outage. OPPD prioritizes repairs that restore the greatest number of customers first, moving down to the lengthier repairs needed to restore a smaller group, and then to individual house-to-house repairs.
We again want to warn our customers of scammers who may be trying to take advantage of vulernable customers right now – calling and falsely claiming customers need to pay for reconnection or other equipment or are overdue on bills. Do not fall for it. NEVER pay a stranger during an unsolicited call. ALWAYS hang up the phone and call OPPD directly if you have questions.
Please remember to report any new outages online, via our OPPDConnect app, or by calling 1-800-554-OPPD (6773) so that we’re aware and can respond.
Customers in need of assistance due to power outages or other storm impacts can call the 211 Helpline for available resources. Douglas County has also posted the following list of cooling stations on their Facebook page, for those struggling in the heat.
8:30 a.m. – As of this time, we’ve restored power to 76% of customers impacted by Wednesday night’s storm. That still leaves 56,549 customers who are going into their third without electricity. We know how tough that is, especially in this summer heat. Our OPPD and mutual aid crews will be working continually to bring power back as soon as possible.
Keep in nind, some of the current outages are either new or the result of after-effects of the storm, such as trees weakened by the storm falling down into power lines days later. Please be sure and report any new outages online, via our OPPDConnect app, or by calling 1-800-554-OPPD (6773) so that we’re aware and can respond.
We are working to get more specific estimates of restoration times. However, with the extent of damage we’re seeing in some areas, it may be up to six days before the final customers have electricity back. We will not let up our efforts until that happens. See the below post for cool places to go today to get some relief, if needed.
We want to warn all of our customers of utility scammers who try to capitalize on large outage events like this. OPPD is already hearing some reports from customers who have received calls from scammers pretending to work for the utility, claiming they need to pay to reconnect service. Never give up personal financial information during an unsolicited call. ALWAYS hang up the phone and call OPPD directly if you have any questions about your bill, reconnection or other related matters.
6:30 a.m. As the third full day of power restoration gets underway, 56,836 customers remain without power. Of them, 44,904 customers are in Douglas County and 9,777 are in Sarpy County. Our crews are also working to restore hundreds of outages remaining in Saunders, Cass, Washington, and Pottawattamie Counties.
Some of the current outages are either new or the result of after-effects of the storm, such as trees or weakened by the storm falling down into power lines days later. For these reasons, outage numbers may fluctuate.
OPPD has estimated that it could be up to six more days before all customers have power back. We are working to get honed in on more specific estimated restoration time frames for individual customers, based on the complexity of repairs. We will be contacting customers whose repairs could take the longest, as we know more.
Those hurricane-force winds Wednesday night snapped utility poles, knocked down trees and power lines, and damaged electrical equipment, causing the most power outages OPPD has ever experienced – 218, 332 at the peak. As soon as the storm passed, OPPD began making calls to secure mutual aid support as it was clear, we would need the help.
Contractors and utilities from as far away as Wisconsin and Ohio have responded in force, with 101 mutual aid crews and 113 additional tree crews have stepped up to lend a hand. They are working alongside OPPD’s team of 45 line crews, 47 tree crews (including our regular contractors), 10 troubleshooters, 27 wires down crews and seven underground cable crews, we’ve had 1,020 front line workers out in our hard-hit areas.
Our work process has been to make repairs that restore the most customers first. We are now in the leg where it takes lengthy, complex repairs to repair just a few customers. It’s slower-going right now, but please know, we are working as hard and quickly as we can, safely, to restore electric service. We know it’s incredibly difficult to be without power this long. OPPD and our mutual aid partners feel for you and want to restore normalcy to your homes and businesses. We promise, we will not let up.
Community groups in the Omaha area are offering help to residents who are still without power due to yesterday’s extreme windstorm. Here are some services available:
Showers/Air Conditioning: In Omaha, Armbrust YMCA is opened its doors Thursday to anyone without power who may need a shower or to get out of the heat. If you are not a member of the YMCA, you will need to bring your state ID.
Cooling Centers: Salvation Army Western Division is opening multiple cooling centers in Omaha, Thursday and Friday, to provide respite from the heat for those dealing with power outages. Locations are North Corps at 2424 Pratt Street, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Citadel Corps at 3738 Cuming St., 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Westside High School at 87th & Pacific St. is also opening from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to provide some relief for customers still without power.
Please remember to report any new or recurring power outages so that we’re aware and can respond. You can do so online, via our OPPDConnect app, or by calling 1-800-554-OPPD (6773).
We will continue to provide updates here as we learn more. For previous days’ updates, click here.