UPDATE: SLEMCO says that power has been restored to all customers affected by this mornings outage.
Roughly 10,000 SLEMCO customers across three parishes were without power Thursday morning because of two separate transmission grid issues.
According to SLEMCO spokesperson Mary Laurent, a switch in the grid, which is not owned by SLEMCO, went out, knocking out power to residents in St. Landry, Evangeline, and Avoyelles Parishes.
Laurent says that transmission grid issues do not occur often and that two occurring at the same time is even more rare.
The St. Landry Parish School Board closed several schools this morning in the Northwest and North Central Zones due to the power outage issues.
The following schools were closed today:
North Central Zone
- North Central High
- Palmetto Elem
- Washington Elem
- Lebeau Head Start
- Washington Head Start
- Washington Career and Technical Center
Northwest Zone
- Northwest High
- Lawtell Elem
- Grand Prairie Elem
- Plaisance Middle
- Lawtell Head Start
Other School Closures
- Westminster Christian Academy - Opelousas campus