CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Ever since the big Texas freeze in 2021, people wonder if their power will go out when cold weather makes its way to town. AEP Texas said they are taking proactive measures and preparing for the upcoming Arctic blast before it hits.
In the Corpus Christi area alone, AEP Texas has about 500 employees on standby, whether that's out in the field fixing outages or in the office taking calls and answering questions. It's an all hands on deck effort.
"When I say our crews are on standby that means our crews are ready to respond at any hour of the day," AEP Director of Communications Omar Lopez said.
And for crew members with AEP, they are already getting pre-positioned in places that could be difficult to in bad weather.
"We need to put them in areas that can be hard to get to. If we see ice on bridges or precipitation on bridges we make sure our crews are stationed over bridges where they need to be," Lopez said.
Lopez said the company is making sure they have all the equipment they need and more.
"We make sure that we have our supplies and tools ready to go and our trucks are stocked and fueled and ready to go," he said.
AEP is also prioritizing crew members for the arctic blast on top of other projects for the time being.
"If there’s ever any type of work that could be postponed for a week or two past this wintery weather that could possibly take any customers offline or cause a temporary interruption in service, a lot of that work is postponed," Lopez said.
To keep in contact with customers, AEP will continuously give updates and estimates via social media and the AEP app of when power will be restored. They are even bringing in their social media team from their headquarters in Ohio to help relay messages to those in the Coastal Bend.
"We don’t know what the weather is going to bring. We don’t know if the weather will result in any power outages, of course that’s our hope, but in case it does we will be ready to go no matter what," Lopez said.
As a precaution, AEP Texas advises anyone who has an in-home medical device that requires electricity to have a back up plan just in case there is an outage.
To stay up to date with any outages, AEP encourages people to follow them on their social media accounts, check on their website or download their app.
