Storm leaves thousands without power in Alabama

Keisha Sharpe, an Alabama Power Co. spokeswoman, said as of 2:20 p.m. today the company has 4,998 customers without power in its Mobile division, which includes Mobile County as well as outlying towns such as Bay Minette, Brewton, Monroeville and Thomasville.
She said that statewide there were 16,600 customers without power. The region with the second-highest number customers without power was the Western Division, which is based in Tuscaloosa. The Birmingham area has the third-highest number of customers without power, Sharpe said.

Darryl Gates, a spokesman for the Alabama Rural Electric Association, said this afternoon there had been about 3,000 customers without power in Escambia County and that about 900 there were still out without power.

"Most should be back on later today," he said.

He said some cooperatives in the western part of Alabama were mobilizing crews in the expectation that the number of outages may go up this afternoon.