DEMCO district offices closed Aug. 24

Greenwell Springs, LA – DEMCO will not be opening district offices on Monday, August 24,” says David Latona, vice president of marketing and member services. “We will review late Monday concerning a Tuesday closure.”

Latona advises members to visit DEMCO.org/member-services for convenient ways to pay your bill.

DEMCO advises members to prepare now for storms that are likely to impact the communities served by the cooperative. Visit DEMCO.org/Storm-Center for safety tips, preparedness checklists for people and pets.

DEMCO reports that whenever storm impact or severe weather is imminent, crews are mobilized early so that restoration can begin as soon as it is safe to do so. At this time, DEMCO crews are in position across all 7-parishes of their service area, ready to respond to outages whenever it is safe to do so. 

DEMCO Storm Command Center has initiated comprehensive storm preparation plans:

  • We keep an inventory of supplies on hand, and identify other items we may need after the storm, like extra poles, cross arms, transformers, and wire
  • Our headquarters operations center is staffed to monitor damage to our system
  • Phone banks are prepared for our member services to handle calls from members
  • Contractors and out of state crews are on standby in case we need them

WAYS TO REPORT OUTAGES:

COVID-19 & Preparedness

DEMCO has an Emergency Response Plan, and we follow the rules and protocols required to comply with all public health and safety standards – We practiced these protocols with the recent storm Cristobal, and we are ready to protect our employees, our members, and any visiting crews who may be called to assist us with widespread outage restoration.

Powering Up (image below)

When a major outage occurs, DEMCO line crews work through a “Powering Up” process to pinpoint problems. Following standard utility practice for repairing and energizing power lines, DEMCO first inspects transmission towers and lines, since they supply power to substations which serve thousands of members. These repairs are necessary before other parts of the system can operate. Next, local distribution substations are examined and repaired; each substation serves hundreds or thousands of members, and correcting issues at this level can restore power quickly to a large number of members.

Helpful Links: www.DEMCO.org/Storm-Center

DEMCO powers 112,000 meters that serve over a half-a-million people in a seven-parish service area of Southeast Louisiana: Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Livingston, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, and West Feliciana.