The Woodlands, Texas - Multiple crews of utility and vegetation workers have been deployed to restore power to areas hard-hit by the strong cold front that moved through Southeast Texas Monday leaving many without power Tuesday.

Power has been restored to the majority of customers left without electricity after the storm and now Entergy Texas, Inc. has moved additional workers, including those from other utilities, into the hardest hit areas. Those areas include cities and communities in and around Cleveland, Conroe and New Caney.

"We have made a lot of progress in repairing damage to our system caused by heavy rainfall and 3/8 inch ice accumulation. We anticipate having power to all customers who can take power by late tonight," Pierce said.

"The number of outages has dropped steadily since we peaked at just a little more than 22,000 at noon Monday," said Vernon Pierce, vice president, customer service. "We've worked hard to quickly assess the damage and bring in extra personnel to assist in the effort. We remain committed to getting the lights back on as safely and as quickly as we can."

Entergy Texas has more than 100 of its own workers into the hardest hit areas, plus some 51 contract crews. Additionally, 28 scout crews and 37 vegetation crews are engaged in the restoration.

Pierce reminded customers that workers are still picking up downed power lines. "Please treat any power line as though it is energized and stay away," he said.

Customers impacted by the storm are also encouraged to access entergytexas.com and click on the View Outages link where real time outage information is available.

Entergy Texas delivers electricity to more than 420,000 customers in 27 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation's leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

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