Oncor service representatives clean up the area at County Road 212 and State Highway 64 after a power pole and limbs fell Wednesday morning during a winter storm. Ice on power lines and trees caused more trees and branches to fall Thursday, triggering more outages throughout the county. Oncor said Thursday it would work through the night to restore power and has 1,000 extra workers assisting.

Thousands of Smith County residents without power are wondering when it will be restored. Oncor representatives say crews are working diligently to fix power lines downed by freezing rain, ice and fallen trees, but have faced challenges.

“We are working around the clock,” Tom Trimble, Oncor’s customer service east region manager, said on Thursday afternoon. “We really do appreciate the patience of everyone, we know it’s difficult right now.”

With the extensive damages to work through, Trimble said it is impossible to give an approximate time frame of when power will be restored.

“There’s so much damage, especially inside and outside the Loop (323) in Tyler, that our workers and contractors are sifting through,” Trimble said.

Smith County is one of the most heavily affected areas in Oncor’s service region and workers are deployed throughout the county.

“Oncor has also secured additional mutual assistance support and now has nearly 2,000 workers from other Texas utilities and neighboring states, in addition to our personnel and contractors actively engaged,” Oncor said in a statement Friday morning. “Restoration efforts have been hampered by the slow moving storm, which has brought multiple waves of ice and precipitation causing re-icing of tree limbs along power lines. In addition, treacherous road conditions have also impacted response times.”

Fallen trees on power lines, as well as at least half an inch of ice accumulating on the power lines themselves, continue to add to damages that began Tuesday.

“Dealing with the freezing rain on Tuesday, we were making great progress in getting power restored,” Trimble said. “We went from 15,000 people without power to about 700.”

Then the second wave of the winter storm came Wednesday and reversed all the headway that had been made.

“The power lines that just had trees taken off had another branch fall on top,” Trimble said. “So, it has been very, very difficult.”

At least 40,000 Smith County customers were affected by the outages.

According to Trimble, there are over 1,500 locations with extensive damage.

“Our workers and contractors are working through the night,” he said. “We are trying to get to as many people as quickly as possible so that everyone gets power back.”

As of 4:20 p.m. Thursday, Smith County had nearly 29,500 residents without power. Thousands more in other areas of East Texas also remained in the dark and cold. Oncor said Tyler, Round Rock, Sulphur Springs and Taylor were the hardest-hit areas in its coverage area.

“In some of these areas, falling limbs and trees have caused extensive damage to electric infrastructure, requiring various teams of responding personnel and multiple repairs along lines before power can be safely restored,” Oncor said in a statement.

By Friday afternoon, over 13,000 in Smith County were still without power.

Oncor secured the support of approximately 1,000 utility workers through mutual assistance partnerships with other Texas utilities and neighboring states, and added an additional 1,000 by Friday. Crews must travel across extremely hazardous and icy road conditions, which may impact response times, Oncor said in a statement.

“Safety for our employees and the public is our number one priority. If you see a downed power line, stay away, keep pets and others away and call 911 immediately,” Oncor stated.

Trimble asks customers to report their outages to help crews have an up-to-date number of current outages.

“Please make sure you are reporting your power outages to us,” Trimble said. “Don’t assume we are aware… just because your neighbor reported their power outage doesn’t mean we know you’re out also. Please let us know.”

Customers can report outages by downloading the MyOncor App, online, by following Oncor on Facebook and Twitter, or by calling 888-313-4747.