Aug. 28--By Derrick Miller

The Duncan Banner

Late Wednesday night through early Thursday morning, heavy storms moved into Stephens County. These storms resulted in many residents temporarily losing electricity.

David Yeager, electricity utilities director for the City of Duncan, said the power outages for Duncan Power customers began Wednesday. About 50 customers were without electricity because of a storm-related outage at an apartment complex. The power was restored before sunup.

After midnight, 2,500 Duncan Power customers were without electricity for about 30 minutes. About 1,000 customers were without power for about six to eight hours because of damage the Duncan Power system sustained from the storm.

By 10:30 a.m. Thursday, 200 customers were still without electricity. Yeager said many of them had been without power for more than seven hours, but he expected the power to be on later in the day.

"The damage and resulting outages were caused by storm-related issues: lightning, high winds, trees," Yeager said. "We have seen reports of 35 miles per hour wind gusts, just a little over 1 inch of rain and 30-degree temperature swings."

As of 8:45 a.m. Thursday, Cotton Electric still had about 140 customers without electricity.

Dispatcher Gary Nichols said he wasn't sure how many people were without power Wednesday night or early Thursday.

"Most of them were in Marlow," Nichols said.

He also said Velma had an electric pole break, which contributed to its power outage.

The City of Marlow reported that all residents spent part of Wednesday night without electricity. The City of Comanche didn't have or didn't know of any power outages in its area.

Public Service Company of Oklahoma had 550 customers without electricity during the stretch between midnight and 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. By 9:30 a.m. Thursday, only two or three homes were without electricity.

Ed Bettinger, PSO spokesman, said the outages occurred primarily in southwest Oklahoma. Aside from Stephens County, Chickasha also had a vast number of outages. In Chickasha, there were about 3,400 customers who lost electricity.

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