How utilities decide who gets power back first

The priority ladder

Utilities publish broadly the same restoration sequence (see e.g. DOE energy-emergency guidance): 1) make hazards safe (downed lines, damaged gas interfaces); 2) repair transmission lines and substations — nothing downstream works without them; 3) restore critical facilities — hospitals, water treatment, emergency services; 4) repair the main distribution circuits that bring back the most customers per fix; 5) work down to branch lines and individual service drops last.

Why your street can be last

If your outage is a single transformer or the line to a handful of homes, you're in the final tier by design — a crew that fixes a main circuit turns on thousands; the same crew on your tap turns on six. It isn't personal; it's arithmetic.

Why the posted time moves

Early restoration estimates are posted before crews finish assessing damage, and they get revised as reality comes in. In our live analysis of posted restoration times, a majority of graded outages saw the posted time move later at least once — plan with a margin, especially early in a large event.

Watch it live

Our tracker shows your area's current outage count, the utility's posted time, and an independent estimate computed from how fast the outage is actually shrinking — with a public accuracy record for those estimates.