Dallas official requests investigation into power restoration delays (2024)

DALLAS — After a series of storms battered the Dallas area over the past week, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, a Dallas City Council member is requesting an investigation into the delays in restoring power for some Dallas residents.

Oncor reported that the storms on May 28 knocked out power for 650,000 of its customers. It mobilized about 12,000 personnel to restore outages, but the utility company said crews faced multiple challenges in the hardest hit areas.

Oncor previously said that its restoration efforts were stymied by flooding, fallen trees and debris because of the storms. The company said in a news release that “wide swaths of power lines and distribution equipment are not only being repaired but must also be reconstructed.”

The main issue the utility company faced was back-to-back storms causing delays in their restoration efforts.

The second wave of storms hit north-central Texas on May 30 into the early morning of May 31, adding to the outages. The hardest hit areas were North Dallas, East Dallas and Mesquite, and those communities faced multiple days without power.

And the severe weather didn’t let up this week with another round of storms battering northeast Texas on Tuesday, causing even more outages.

These historic storms have prompted one Dallas City Council member to request an investigation by Oncor into its power restoration work.

Council member Paula C. Blackmon, who represents District 9, said she wanted answers as to why restoration efforts were delayed in East Dallas.

Blackmon specifically asked that Oncor answer questions about the extent of the damage, response times, communication protocols and ways to prevent similar delays.

“While we appreciate the work done in the aftermath of the storms, our East Dallas community experienced a significant impact to their quality of life during their loss of power,” Blackmon said in her memorandum. “We would like to understand what happened and how we can work together to create a resilient community.”

An immediate action Blackmon requested was that Oncor take steps to address “systemic issues and improve communication with residents and the City of Dallas.”

One way Blackmon believes the electric company can improve communication is for Oncor to share power outage locations with the City of Dallas, so city officials can deploy resources to help residents in need.

Spectrum News reached out to Oncor, and a spokesperson for the company said that after every major storm, it does a review of the restoration process to find out if changes are needed moving forward.

"From an outage perspective, this was the second worst storm in our 112-year company history and the most damaging storm to hit Dallas County," the spokesperson said. "We did experience an issue with our notification system. We actively worked to correct it and offered alternative options for customers to report outages and get more information. We understand this caused some confusion for our customers at an already stressful time. Our goal is to always keep our customers informed about the status of their outage."

The spokesperson also said that they have received Blackmon's memo, and Oncor officials are scheduled to meet with "several council members to provide a post-storm briefing and respond to any of their concerns."

"Throughout the storm, we communicated with city staff and council members and provided updates, as they were available. We recognize that any outage is a hardship, especially when it extends over several days. We are grateful for our customers, the selfless work of our dedicated employees and the assistance of our mutual aid partners," the spokesperson said.