{"id":24696,"date":"2026-01-28T17:46:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T17:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=856021"},"modified":"2026-01-28T17:46:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T17:46:39","slug":"thousands-of-east-texans-remain-without-power-after-winter-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/thousands-of-east-texans-remain-without-power-after-winter-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of East Texans Remain Without Power After Winter Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/img\/social\/opengraph\/ij-social-default-1200x630.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2026\/01\/28\/856021.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/southcentral\/2026\/01\/28\/856021.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>Thousands of East Texans remain without power days after a winter storm paralyzed most of the state over the weekend. Many may be without power until Sunday as utility workers traverse icy roads in dense forests to restore power.<\/p>\n<p>Winter Storm Fern spread across the U.S. from New Mexico to the Northeast over the weekend, leaving thick layers of ice and snow in its wake. Residents across Texas saw temperatures drop below freezing and power outages that lasted anywhere from a few minutes to days.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-topics=\"windstorm\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>East Texas was the only region in Texas to lose power for an extended period of time.<\/p>\n<p>Misty Gulley, a school cafeteria worker in Panola County, has been without power since 7:30 a.m. Saturday. She has relied on a gas-powered generator to keep warm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce I run out of gas, I\u2019ll be in trouble,\u201d she said. \u201cGoing to get more is an issue with road conditions, and the cost to keep it running is an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Panola County is part of the stretch of counties near the Louisiana border that remain without power. Shelby County, which is directly south of Panola County and home to about 24,000 people, saw the most ice accumulation in the state, which resulted in downed power lines, poles and trees, said Brittney Ford, the communications director for the Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative.<\/p>\n<p>The Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative has the highest number of outages in the state and has been working for days to fix hundreds of lines and poles across eight counties. As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the cooperative still had 10,688 customers without power \u2014 about 25% of its customers.<\/p>\n<p>Certain areas in East Texas affected by recent winter weather are served by electric cooperatives, which are different from corporations like Oncor or Xcel that serve larger urban areas like Amarillo and Dallas. They\u2019re member-owned and operate on a not-for-profit basis. Co-ops usually serve rural areas. The co-ops rigorously prepare for extreme weather, said Julia Harvey, the vice president of government relations and regulatory affairs for the Texas Electric Cooperatives.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-topics=\"windstorm\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cThey do everything they can to prepare for every eventuality,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cAnd the reality is, in certain areas of the state, differing weather patterns pose different risks, and the rural nature of the systems operating on private land with tall trees impacted by ice outside of cooperative rights-of-way can make restoration challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deep East Texas is a rural, heavily wooded region with pine trees that reach a hundred feet into the sky. The region is also home to dense vegetation and swamps that make accessing power lines a tall order, even with easements. Maintaining power lines in non-disaster situations is doable, but difficult. Fixing them is time-consuming and labor-intensive, said Ford.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have replaced approximately 30 poles thus far, and 200 cross arms,\u201d Ford said. \u201cWe have assessed that we have probably 150 poles and 400 cross arms remaining that need to be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cooperative has been receiving support from other cooperatives across the region and state. There were more than 300 crew members on the ground Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Ford said they hope to have power restored sooner than Sunday, but the cooperative is trying to be realistic and transparent about the feasibility of doing so.<\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: Oncor and Texas Electric Cooperative have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.<\/p>\n<p>This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/windstorm\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Windstorm<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"856021\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-yes\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! <span class=\"percent\"><\/span>% of people found this article valuable. 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Many may be without power until Sunday as utility workers traverse&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1896,1,756,77,1894],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/thousands-of-east-texans-remain-without-power-after-winter-storm.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}