Weekend storms swept through parts of Mobile County, knocking out electricity to roughly 16,000 Alabama Power customers, with the heaviest impact concentrated around Citronelle and Saraland.
By Sunday morning, utility officials said crews had restored service to the vast majority of affected customers, though about 1,500 households and businesses remained without power. An Alabama Power spokesperson said crews worked through the night and continued restoration efforts into the weekend, with additional line crews brought in from other parts of the state to speed up repairs.
Storm damage in the area included downed utility poles and lines, which crews spent the weekend replacing and re-stringing throughout the affected communities. Utility officials said they expected to have power restored to all remaining customers by that night.
Severe summer storms are a routine, if disruptive, feature of the Gulf Coast’s late-summer weather pattern, often producing localized damage even without reaching hurricane or tropical storm strength. Mobile County’s rural and semi-rural communities, including Citronelle in the county’s north and Saraland closer to the Mobile metro area, can be particularly vulnerable to prolonged outages given the more spread-out nature of the power distribution infrastructure serving those areas compared with denser parts of the county.
Residents in affected areas were encouraged to report ongoing outages directly to Alabama Power and to stay clear of any downed lines, which can remain energized even after a storm has passed. Utility crews typically prioritize restoring service to critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water treatment facilities before moving on to residential areas, a standard practice during large-scale outage events.
No injuries were reported in connection with the weekend storms, and officials did not indicate any additional severe weather was expected in the immediate aftermath that could complicate ongoing restoration efforts across the affected communities.
Alabama Power routinely encourages residents in outage-prone areas to keep an emergency kit on hand during the summer storm season, including flashlights, batteries and a battery-powered radio, given how quickly severe weather can develop along the Gulf Coast. Officials said customers could check estimated restoration times and report new outages through the utility’s customer service line as crews continued working through the affected neighborhoods.