Storm Center > Severe Weather Continues Moving Across Territory

Severe Weather Continues Moving Across Territory
By: Corporate Editorial Team

01/11/2020

As predicted, severe weather continues pushing to the east today through the Entergy service territory. The storms have caused and continue causing a significant number of outages for our customers. Restoration is underway.

At 9:30 a.m., about 100,000 customers were without power, including approximately:

    • Arkansas – 28,500
    • Louisiana – 29,500
    • Mississippi – 35,000
    • Texas – 7,000

Where it's safe to do so, we're assessing damage to our system caused by the storms and restoring service. As we restore power to critical services, we assess damage and put in place our restoration plan that will restore service to the greatest number of our customers as safely and quickly as possible.

Full assessment may take several days. Our scouts are assessing damage to determine the exact cause of your outage and how long it will take correct the problem. As we assess damage, we restore service where it is safe to do so. (For example, in Texas, outages have been reduced to roughly 7,000 from the peak of more than 19,000 outages that occurred about 6 a.m. this morning.)

We'll be better prepared to give an estimated time to restore power after the full assessment is completed.

Safety

The safety of our workers and customers remains our key value, especially during power outages and severe weather conditions. Restoration begins when it is safe. We must wait until sustained winds are less than 30 mph to use our bucket trucks.

The greatest danger during and after a storm like this is from downed power lines. If anyone sees a power line on the ground or in the trees or bushes—do not go near it! Call us at 800-9OUTAGE (800-968-8243).

Stay away from standing water and debris from trees and other vegetation. It may be electrically charged from underground or downed power lines.

Another danger comes from customers who improperly connect a generator to their home. A registered electrician needs to connect it to your home to prevent damage to your home’s electrical system or death or injury to our linemen.

How We Restore

We continue implementing our proven plan of continuous preparation, training and action that we call Operation: Storm Ready. Our plan helps us restore the greatest number customers safely in the shortest amount of time.

First, we restore power to critical community infrastructure and essential services such as hospitals, water treatment plants, police and fire stations, and communication systems. Then we will concentrate our resources on what gets the greatest number of customers restored the fastest.

Power is restored faster in areas with less damage. Some of the hardest-hit areas may take longer.

Service lines to individual homes and businesses will be restored last because fewer customers are involved. In the case of fewer outages spread over larger areas, it often takes more time to get power back on for them.

As we restore service in your area, keep in mind that if you don’t see us working near you, we may be working on another part of the electrical system that you can’t see but must be repaired to get power to you.

What Can You Do?

Please do not approach utility workers at the job site. These can be dangerous locations. Interruptions will also slow progress.

You can make sure your home or business is ready for us to restore your power.

Check outside your home or business for damage to your electrical equipment.

If the meter or any of the piping and wires on the outside wall of your home or business is missing or looks damaged, call an electrician to make repairs.

If your home or business has been flooded, you will need to contact the city or county where you live or work for an electrical inspection before service can be restored.

You can expect regular updates from us through the many available communications channels. As restoration progresses, here is how you can get information from us.

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Storm Center 
Corporate Editorial Team
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