Significant progress has been made this afternoon in restoring power to areas of AEP Texas impacted by the cold front that ripped through the area Thursday night.

As of 12:30 p.m., there were approximately 7,238 customers without power – which is down from the 20,650 number reported out at 9:30 a.m. today.

AEP Texas Vice President of Electric Distribution Bruce Evans noted that physical damage to the electrical system was minimal but the inclement weather did cause a number of problems like downed power lines caused by high winds and fallen tree limbs.

Here are the areas that are currently without power and estimated restoration times:

Beeville – Crews have restored power to 800 customers and are working to restore power to the remaining 400 customers by 2 p.m. today.

North Padre Island – About 3,400 customers were without power briefly this morning due to an overloaded circuit. However, crews have made significant progress and currently there are 121 customers without power. It is estimated those customers will be back in service by 5 p.m.

Yorktown – Tree limbs caused a power failure at its substation and there are 508 customers without power. However, it is expected that all customers will be back in service by 1 p.m. today.

Victoria – Tree limbs caused outages this morning and currently 208 customers are without power. It is estimated that power will be restored by 1 p.m.

Goliad – About 200 customers are without power and should have service restored by 3 p.m. Trees and downed power lines caused outages in this area.

Rio Grande Valley -- Restoration of service to electricity users in the Rio Grande Valley area has improved significantly over the past few hours although pockets of outages remain.  As of noon today, 1,525 customers remained without power, predominantly in the Weslaco, Port Isabel and surrounding areas.  AEP Texas crews are working to reroute circuits while the restoration of a service to a transmission line serving South Padre Island and a transmission line at the Westmer Substation continues. Repairs to those transmission lines are anticipated by 6 p.m., if not sooner.

Evans thanked customers for their patience during the power outages and reminds all customers to call in their outage if they are not back in service this afternoon to ensure their outage has been logged.