Power Outages Increase Across Jasper, Newton Counties Following Transmission Line Damage

As of 9:00 A.M. Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Power outages across Jasper County and Newton County increased sharply Tuesday morning after a damaged transmission line forced additional load shedding, according to Jasper-Newton Electric Cooperative.

As of mid-morning Tuesday, more than 3,700 customers combined in the two counties were without electricity — a significant increase from fewer than 300 outages reported earlier in the morning, based on outage tracking data.

In an update issued at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, JNEC said the increase is tied to a transmission outage affecting substations serving the Buna and Evadale areas.

“Due to a damaged transmission line affecting the substations serving the Buna and Evadale areas, JNEC has been instructed by TCC North to shed load to these locations until repairs can be made,” JNEC stated.

JNEC officials said crews are currently en route to perform the necessary repairs, but no estimated restoration time is available at this time.

“We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the issue,” the cooperative said.

Load shedding is a controlled outage process used to protect the electrical system while transmission repairs are underway. Officials emphasized that the outages are not weather-related at this stage, but rather the result of infrastructure damage upstream of local substations.

Residents in affected areas are encouraged to prepare for potentially extended outages, limit unnecessary travel, and monitor official JNEC communications for updates as repair work continues.

This is a developing situation, and updates will be shared as additional information becomes available.