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Storm Center > Entergy Working to Restore Power to Hard-Hit North Louisiana Communities
Entergy Working to Restore Power to Hard-Hit North Louisiana Communities
08/28/2020
Crews are working as quickly as they safely can to restore power to north Louisiana residents who took an unexpectedly hard hit from Hurricane Laura.
The storm toppled trees and power lines, blocked roads and damaged homes.
“The whole region was hit very hard. No one was spared,” said Todd Bordelon, senior region manager for North Louisiana.
In all, north Louisiana suffered more than 130,000 of the peak 270,300 outages recorded in Entergy Louisiana’s service area Thursday afternoon. Ouachita Parish recorded the most outages with 60,000 at the height of the storm Thursday. By 3PM Friday, Aug. 28, that number had dropped to approximately 112,706 as crews worked to restore customers.
Damage assessment is still underway in the region, but at least four transmission structures were damaged. Initial assessments also revealed 574 broken poles, 1,108 spans of downed wire and 910 broken crossarms.
Restoration Effort Has Begun
We have started restoring service to our customers where it is safe to do so and continue assessing damage to our system caused by Hurricane Laura.
Entergy has secured a storm team of nearly 13,400 from 28 states to help restore power throughout Louisiana. The company has brought in special equipment, including drones, that help workers more quickly assess damage.
Along with standard storm preparations, Entergy employees are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic by taking additional steps. Due to the added measures crews must take, restoration may take longer, especially where there are widespread outages. Also, crews continue to practice social distancing, and we ask that customers do the same. For their safety and yours, please stay away from work zones. Crews will focus on restoring emergency services first, and then will prioritize work to restore the greatest number of customers.
Entergy urges its customers to be cautious as they venture out to clean up after the storm.
“Focus on your safety and the safety of your family. Debris from vegetation, fences, structures and more is everywhere,” said Roderick Worthy, Entergy customer service manager. “Also, make sure you’ve got supplies for the next few days to stay healthy while riding out the outages.
“And remember, our only order of business right now is to restore your power safely.”
For the most up to date outage numbers, visit Entergy Louisiana’s view outages webpage.
