In mid‑March 2025, tornadoes swept through the southern Ozarks, striking southeastern Ozark County and moving northeast toward West Plains and Oregon County. The storms inflicted heavy damage on the Sho‑Me Power system—three Sho‑Me substations were directly hit, with both high-voltage transmission lines and main feeder lines sustaining significant harm. More than 400 utility poles were snapped or fell, leading to prolonged outages affecting over 6,300 members through the weekend. Restoration crews, supported by mutual‑aid linemen from across Missouri and Arkansas, worked tirelessly until full service was restored by the evening of Friday, March 21, 2025. The cooperative later reflected, “What the cooperative built over time; Mother Nature destroyed in seconds,” emphasizing both the scale of the damage and the resilience of their restoration teams.
