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Insights > Damage Assessments and Restoration Continues Throughout Louisiana
Damage Assessments and Restoration Continues Throughout Louisiana
07/14/2019
A workforce of more than 3,900 Entergy scouts, line crews and contractors are continuing to perform damage assessments and restoration where it is safe to do so as Barry, which made landfall yesterday as a Category 1 hurricane, continues a northerly track through Louisiana.
As of 9 a.m. Sunday, approximately 64,000 Entergy customers were without power across Louisiana, with the Bayou Region parishes and the Greater Baton Rouge severely impacted. While damage assessments and restoration efforts are ongoing, additional outages could occur as the storm continues north. Since Louisiana first started being affected by Barry, Entergy has restored a total of 188,000 customer outages.
In the Bayou Region, which includes Assumption, Lafourche, St. Mary, and Terrebonne parishes, we have faced several challenges, including inaccessible roadways due to water and high winds that prevented work that needed to be done using a bucket truck. Crews now have access to some areas that had been previously inaccessible due to flooding, including in Grand Isle and Port Fourchon. Workers will clear debris and begin damage assessments and restoration where it is safe to do so. Additionally, drones will be flown to assess damages where wind speeds allow.
In the Greater Baton Rouge area, a significant portion of the damage is located in the rear of residential lots, which take more time to repair given the challenge of accessing our equipment and the wet ground.
As restoration work is completed in other parts of the state, crews will be reassigned to areas that are still without power.
We urge our customers to keep safety top of mind. 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.
We know you want information about your outage.
- As soon as it is safe to do so, we begin assessing damage and restoring power. This process could take several days depending on the severity of the storm’s impact.
- In areas where it is safe, our damage assessment teams will patrol the lines and view the facilities to determine how much the storm damaged our electrical system.
- Damage assessments provide details that help us know what we need to do to restore your service and to let you know how long it may take.
Here’s how we approach things at this stage:
- Any affected essential services such as hospitals, nursing homes, fire and police departments, and water systems are at the head of the restoration list, along with our equipment that supplies electricity to large numbers of customers.
- Then we will concentrate our resources on getting the greatest number customers back the fastest.
- We can’t use our bucket trucks until sustained winds are less than 30 mph. In some instances, we can begin restoring service to customers by closing circuit breakers, rerouting power and other actions that don’t require the use of bucket trucks.
- Road and flood-gate closures, significant flooding and other accessibility challenges due to the storm will affect our ability reach some areas of our territory and could delay restoration in those communities.
While each storm is different, we continue implementing a detailed plan that has worked well for us during past storm events. Our restoration process is a team effort.
- Restoration involves not only workers from our area but also crews from other parts of the four states we serve, other utility companies and contractors.
- Repairs begin with major lines to the substations, then to the lines and equipment serving the largest number of customers.
- Service lines to individual homes and businesses will be restored last because fewer customers are involved, and in the case of fewer outages spread over larger areas, it often takes more time to get power back on for them.
