Jim Wells County outages fall to 8 after overnight storms
Only 8 Jim Wells County customers were still without power by late afternoon after overnight storms, down from 479 early that morning.
Jim Wells County was nearly back to normal by late afternoon, when AEP Texas outage data showed just 8 customers still without electricity after overnight storms moved through the Coastal Bend. The county had started the morning with 479 outages, then dropped to 270 by 11:25 a.m., a rapid recovery that mattered to households trying to keep food cold, manage work schedules and avoid another long night in the dark.
The county’s progress stood out against a wider regional outage event. KIII 3NEWS reported 9,564 outages across the Coastal Bend at 7:49 a.m., with larger clusters still affecting Nueces, San Patricio, Kleberg, Bee, Aransas, Refugio and Live Oak counties. AEP Texas’s outage pages, which update in real time and include estimated restoration information, gave residents a way to see how quickly crews were closing the gap from hundreds of outages to single digits.
By the next day, Jim Wells County was still inching toward full restoration. KIII reported 20 outages at 6 a.m. on May 21, 11 outages by 9:55 a.m. and 8 outages again by 5:55 p.m. That pattern showed the county was close to the end of the restoration list even as harder-hit areas in the Coastal Bend still carried larger outage totals.
The storm itself brought the kind of weather that often strains rural power systems: heavy rain, lightning and gusty winds. In a county of roughly 38,850 to 38,891 people spread across about 865 square miles, even a short outage can ripple through homes and businesses that sit far from backup services and along long stretches of road. For Jim Wells County families, the difference between hundreds of outages and a handful is more than a statistic. It marks the point where crews are getting life back on line, one neighborhood and one service call at a time.
The latest outage count also fit into a broader pattern of weather damage that Jim Wells County has faced before. In May 2025, a severe storm left about 3,000 people without power, brought 89 mph winds, destroyed homes and knocked down power poles. The City of Alice and Jim Wells County both submitted disaster declarations, and a shelter opened at the Jim Wells County Emergency Operations Center.
County records say the county judge serves as director of emergency management during a declared disaster, putting that office at the center of any response with AEP Texas, the Texas Division of Emergency Management and, when needed, federal recovery partners. In the aftermath of the May 8, 2025 storm, Jim Wells County said it was working with Gov. Greg Abbott, TDEM and the U.S. Small Business Administration on assistance, and the SBA declaration ultimately covered Jim Wells County and contiguous counties including Brooks, Duval, Kleberg, Live Oak, Nueces and San Patricio.
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