Nearly 7,000 Alabama Power customers in Gadsden experienced a power outage late last night, and the culprit was a little out of the ordinary. Apparently a snake, a copperhead, was found in one of the transmission substations. The outages occurred just after 10 p.m. and service was quickly restored to all customers just before 1 a.m. The snake measured 6 feet long!

On Friday, May 18, Michelle Howard and her son will be able to move into their new Habitat for Humanity home.

Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO) volunteers, along with several partner agencies, will put the finishing touches on their 21^st Habitat home in a “blitz” build May 14-18.

Some construction work has already begun on the “green” EarthCents home, as the foundation and walls have taken shape.

And just across the street from the home, supplies, snacks and other items will be housed for the volunteers.

This home will have many environmentally friendly and energy efficient features. An official dedication ceremony happens Friday, May 18 around midday featuring opening comments by FOX 6 chief meteorologist J.P. Dice.

We’re always working to improve our systems and make them more friendly for you. We recently did some tweaks on the bill-pay portion of our site, and the performance is much better.

·        Windows Vista and Windows 7 users can download IE9

·        Windows XP users are recommended to use IE8

Mac users can get the latest version of Safari here

If you have any other issues or questions, you can call our Customer Care line at 800-245-2244.

“C’MON, ALABAMA POWER!  It’s not even windy outside!”

We do hear that from time to time. But not every service interruption is storm-related.

One of our linemen snagged a picture of this Sunday night in Pratt City. It looks like a bit like a moccasin in the photo, but it’s actually just a chicken snake. It climbed the pole, and on the way back down made contact across something it shouldn’t have.

Our equipment is designed to minimize disruptions to as small an area as possible. In this case, the snake’s completion of the circuit caused the fuse on the transformer to blow, protecting the rest of the grid. That limited the impact to just four customers served off that pole, and after a couple of hours their lights were back on.

If you have a few moments, this video explains more about the equipment we use to keep outages to a minimum in both good weather and bad.

http://alpwr.co/outages

There is a series of messages being sent to Southern Company customers about billing. Specifically, they are being told that calling a certain toll-free number would qualify them for a program where either BP or the federal government would pay for their power bills for six months.

This is not true in any way.

The affected customers are being contacted through social media, texting and direct phone calls. Please be aware that this offer is not true, and should not be acted upon.

As a general rule, if you are ever contacted by someone claiming to be from Alabama Power, do not disclose any of your billing or personal banking information. If you have questions about your account or accounts receivable conversion, please call the Customer Service number (800-245-2244), which is located on the front of your electric bill.

Alabama Power was proud to be a sponsor of the first Electrathon America event in the state. Four teams (Calera High, Fairfield Prep, Hewitt-Trussville High and Auburn University) competed in two races at the Barber Motorsports Track. In all, more than 50 students and teachers got the opportunity to test their electric vehicles against one another.

As of 6:30 a.m., Alabama Power crews have restored service to nearly 30,000 customers affected by the severe storms that passed through. There were still 4,900 customers remaining without power, with the communities of Dadeville, Alexander City, Clanton, Gadsden and Reform accounting for 3,000 of those.

Nearly all the damage was caused by either direct lightning strikes or trees falling across power pines. Approximately 19,000 of those outages happened after 10:00 p.m., in communities that had not been hit with storms earlier on the day. A few of those customers might not get power back until this afternoon or this evening.

As you get up and around today, please be very careful around downed lines and poles, and do not drive under sagging lines. (A live wire looks exactly like a de-energized one!) If you are without service, or see a potential hazard with our lines or equipment, please call us as 800-888-2726.

Here's a snapshot of what we were seeing around 8:45 p.m., on Friday night, March 2, 2012:

Western Division (total): 5,300
Reform: 1,400
Aliceville: 1,000
Tuscaloosa: 750
Livingston: 700

Eastern Division: 625

Metro Birmingham: 700

Rest of State: <300

Statewide total: 6,900

The damage is very widely scattered, with more than 10 communities registering at least 300 affected customers. Most of that damage was caused either directly by lightning, or by fallen trees. Crews have already been assigned to nearly all of the trouble spots, and many are already working where the wind and lack of lightning make it safe.

Barring any additional significant damage, most of those affected in the Western area should be restored shortly after midnight, some sooner.

And of course, there remain Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in effect, and we have crews on standby in areas that haven't been directly affected so far.

Stay safe by staying tuned to some outlet (TV, Radio, App or SMS) that will keep you apprised of new watches and warnings. If you experience an outage or see downed lines, call it in at 800-888-2726.