Saturday's planned power outages around Woodbine and Callisburg

PenTex Energy posted a notice on Tuesday about a Saturday-morning outage around Woodbine. When we went to PenTex's page for the full map, we found a second notice for the same morning, and it covers a much bigger area. Here is what each one says, and where.

Woodbine area: from about 5 AM, at least 30 minutes

PenTex says its power supplier will do substation work on Saturday, Oct. 24, starting around 5 AM. Members in the Woodbine area should expect to lose power for at least 30 minutes.

The shaded area on PenTex's map covers Woodbine and the country west and south of it. It runs along FM 678 and FM 902 out to FM 3092, from just south of Hwy 82 down past County Road 2117. County Roads 123, 147, 178, 208 and 219 all run through it.

North of Hwy 82: about 7 to 8 AM, 2 to 3 minutes

The second notice is short in time and large on the map. Around 7 to 8 AM, PenTex expects a momentary outage of two to three minutes in what it calls the Gainesville, Callisburg and Dexter areas north of Hwy 82.

On the map, that means the countryside north of Hwy 82 between Gainesville and Dexter. The shading starts near County Road 135, crosses FM 371, takes in Callisburg and runs up FM 678 to Dexter and County Road 116.

Two or three minutes is short. It is still long enough to reset clocks, routers and anything else without a battery.

Why now

PenTex says its supplier has been working on transmission lines in the area, and Saturday's work is a next step toward more reliable service.

This corner of the county knows why that matters. On Sept. 21, a transmission problem on the supplier's side knocked out five substations south of Hwy 82, east of Gainesville and north of Moss Lake, plus areas north of Callisburg, PenTex posted that afternoon. By evening most of them had power back. Woodbine was the area still waiting.

Before Saturday

Charge phones on Friday night. If someone in your home uses medical equipment that runs on power, plan for the Woodbine window now, because 30 minutes is PenTex's minimum, not a promise. Early risers out there may want to make the coffee the night before.

If your power is still off well after these windows, PenTex asks members to report it through the member portal, the MyPenTex app or its office line, 940-759-2211.