Insights > Operation: Storm Ready

Operation: Storm Ready

By:

08/08/2018

It’s the news no one wants to hear: severe weather is on the way. In next to no time, the sky darkens. The wind begins to howl. Then the rain comes down in relentless sheets. Everyone begins to wonder, “What will happen after the storm has passed?”

“When there’s a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, that’s not the first time to be thinking about how you’re going to go about restoring power,” said Mike Vaughan, Entergy’s system storm incident commander. “We follow a very detailed, rehearsed plan that has worked well for us during storm recovery.”

Entergy serves areas that are prone to some of the most severe weather in the United States: ice storms, tornadoes, violent thunderstorms and of course, hurricanes. To combat those and other perils, we have a plan of continuous preparation, training and action. We call that plan Operation: Storm Ready.

Entergy plans restoration efforts months before the first sign of foul weather.

“We have mutual assistance agreements in place with utility providers in nearby states to help us to build the needed work force to get your lights back on as safely and quickly as possible,” Vaughan said.

Monitoring weather threats is a full-time job, 24/7, 365 days a year. The company views Operation: Storm Ready as a state of rolling readiness.

“At the hint of trouble, the action part of our plan is activated,” said Mike Fricke, a member of the Entergy Incident Response group. “That means consulting weather forecast experts, monitoring weather reports and putting our recovery, logistics and materials supply teams on alert.” 

“It also means preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best,” Vaughan added. 

“When a weather threat is confirmed, Entergy uses weather forecasts and computer models based on knowledge from past storms to predict an estimated number and duration of outages that could occur,” Fricke explained. “If needed, some Entergy crews and materials that are at risk from the storm are evacuated from the area before it hits. Those crews are positioned far enough away for their safety, but close enough to respond quickly when it is safe to do so after the storm has passed.”