8:30 a.m., July 22, 2005
 

• AEP Texas and support crews have completed major service restoration efforts to all areas of the Rio Grande Valley affected by Hurricane Emily.   Activities have moved from the restoration phase to the cleanup phase.
•  “We want to thank everyone served by AEP Texas for their patience and understanding throughout the restoration activities,” said Charles Patton, AEP Texas president and chief operating officer.  “Despite not being hit directly by Hurricane Emily, this was a major storm for our area with over 27,500 customers without power at the height of the storm.  We especially are pleased to have been able to restore service following a storm of this magnitude under adverse conditions with no accidents or injuries to the public or to our employees.”  
• AEP Texas service crews are continuing their work on the remaining individual outage tickets called in to the AEP Customer Solutions Center.  These isolated outages totaled approximately 400 as of 8:30 a.m. Friday.  The largest remaining concentrations of outages included:

 
Mission                                                             160 outages
Port Isabel/South Padre Island Area             100 outages
McAllen                                                            100 outages
 

• Crews continue to work to reduce this number.  Cleanup efforts should be completed later today with service restored to all customers who lost power as a result of the storm.  In some cases, however, the electric service entrance for the consumer was damaged by the storm, and service cannot be restored safely until the damage is repaired.   
• Electric consumers living within the AEP Texas service territory affected by Hurricane Emily who are still without power are asked to contact the AEP Customer Solutions Center.  The toll-free number is 1-866-223-8508.

 
AEP Texas, a unit of American Electric Power, provides energy delivery service in south and west Texas. AEP Texas serves a 44,000-square-mile area of south Texas. AEP Texas is based in Corpus Christi.

American Electric Power owns more than 36,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States and is the nation´s largest electricity generator. AEP is also one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with more than 5 million customers linked to it´s 11-state electricity transmission and distribution grid. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio.