Storm knocks out Ruston power, city working to restore

Ruston utility crews and contract linemen are expected to work into the night to restore the remaining power knocked out when a round of severe thunderstorms moved through the area Sunday afternoon.

At one point, 80% of the city was without power. That’s about 8,000 customers. By 6:15 p.m. Sunday, 75% of the power was back on, Mayor Ronny Walker said.

“We had major outages around the city,” he said.

Utility crews were headed to the Lee Street area at approximately 6:20 p.m. 

Walker said most of the damage he’d seen appeared to be from straight line winds. 

The strong winds downed trees and limbs across the parish, blocking roadways and causing residential damage.

As of 6:30 p.m. Sunday, online maps for both Entergy and Claiborne Electric Cooperative showed widespread outages in Lincoln Parish. Sixty-two percent of Claiborne Electric’s 4,644 customers were without power. Some 4,176 Entergy customers were also without electricity.