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Insights > Entergy Texas Morning Restoration Update – Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020 @ 8 a.m.
Entergy Texas Morning Restoration Update – Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020 @ 8 a.m.
09/01/2020
Hurricane Laura
September 1, 2020 Tuesday, 8:00 a.m.
TEXAS
Entergy Texas continues to make great progress restoring power since Hurricane Laura hit the shores of Texas and Louisiana. As of 8:00 a.m., Entergy Texas has 32,386 customers without power compared to the peak of 291,300 customers. This reflects that 258,914 customers have been restored since the peak of the storm.
Crews have been very successful in making repairs to our distribution system and services to individual households. Overnight, Entergy Texas was able to restore power to approximately 21,000 customers in the Beaumont, Orange, Nederland, Port Neches, Port Arthur and Vidor areas.
While crews complete restoration efforts in Texas and Louisiana, there is also significant work to repair the transmission system that serves Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. The transmission system is the backbone of the electric grid and helps Entergy move power from the power plant to the lines serving customers’ neighborhoods. These large lines are like the interstate system, and without these lines in service, it can make it difficult to move power across the system to customers in the affected areas.
Any remaining customers remaining without power in Beaumont will be restored September 1, Port Arthur, Nederland, Port Neches and Groves September 1. We still expect the Orange area to be completed by September 4.
Orange and Surrounding Areas
As of 8:00 a.m., 23,679 customers in the Orange and surrounding areas are without power compared to yesterdays’ total of 32,955. Approximately 9,000 customers were restored overnight. As restoration in other areas is completed, all crews are converging on the Orange area to complete restoration.
Damage assessments are complete and damage identified are:
- Orange has roughly 566 broken poles, 706 spans of wire down, 106 transformers and 293 crossarms to be replaced.
- McLewis has 144 broken poles, 256 spans of wire down, 20 transformers and 115 crossarms to be replaced.
- Vidor has 58 broken poles, 123 spans of wire down, 7 transformers and 26 crossarms to be replaced.
- Bridge City has 87 broken poles, 126 spans of wire down, 23 transformers and 48 crossarms to be replaced.
Crews are continuing to work in the same areas as yesterday afternoon. There were some areas on the West and North side of Orange that were able to have power restored, and the crews from those areas will migrate to start working the areas still without power.
Orange Area:
- Cordary Substation (West of 16th street) – Crews are working at the Country Club Subdivision, Sunset Dr, 23rd Street, and International Apartment Complex/Subdivision.
- (East side of 16th street) – Crews are working at Brownwood and the Simmons Drive area.
- Front Street Substation – Crews are working Downtown Orange (Main Fire station & Police Station, Stark Foundation, Lamar Orange), the Cove.
- Orange Bulk Substation – Crews are working in Clairmont, Charlemont, Lindenwood, West Wood, Hillbrook, Baptist Hospital.
- West Orange Substation – Crews are working at West Orange School District, West Orange Cove High School area, and the town of West Orange.
- Echo Substation – Crews are working at Cypress Bayou, Knottingham, Kinerd Estates, the Chasse Ridge area subdivisions, Highway 87 North.
Mauriceville Area:
- McLewis Substation – Crews are working in Mauriceville Area/Greenwood Acres, Woodridge, Texla Road area, on Highway 62 North of I-10
- Winfrey Substation (Highway 62 and Highway 105) – Crews are working in Victory Gardens, Waterwood, Cypresswood neighborhoods,
Orangefield/Bridge City Area:
- Oilla/Winfrey Substation (Orangefield ISD schools, all subdivisions off of Highway 105 West around the High School) – Crews are working at Cajun Way Subdivision, Bessie Heights Subdivision, Duncan Woods Subdivision, Bridge Field Estates, Tyler Estates, Schofield Addition, The Cove
- Bridge City Substation – Crews are working at Highway 87, North Round Bunch Road, Bridgeview Estates
Entergy Texas expects to restore most of its customers, who can safely take power by Friday, September 4.
Groves, Nederland, Port Arthur and Port Neches
As of 8:00 a.m., there are 8,508 customers without power in the area that includes Groves, Nederland, Port Arthur, Port Neches, Sabine Pass & Taylor Landing. This is down from the peak of 43,148 customers. Last night, workers restored power to over 10,000 customers.
Scouts have completed the assessment of the area and have identified the damaged equipment, that caused the outages. These assessments have identified 79 downed poles, 113 downed spans of wire, 14 damaged transformers and 137 broken crossarms.
Workers continue to make progress in making repairs to the distribution system which brings power to the neighborhoods and services to individual households and businesses; however, crews continue to restore our transmission system which was heavily impacted by Laura. Transmission restoration continues to be a top priority as workers continue to repair all damage.
As crews complete restoration of transmission lines serving the area, we will be able to complete our restoration efforts in these areas.
Due to repairs on a transmission line serving much of Groves is still without power. Today workers will be focusing on total restoration of that area, with hopes that once the transmission line is in place, the vast majority of those without power, will be restored late tonight.
Other areas that workers will be focused on include:
- Port Arthur, near Proctor & Stadium, the Griffin Park area, some smaller pockets of downtown, area near Roosevelt Park, areas on the west side and the Lakeview area.
- Sabine Pass area.
- Port Neches, between Sierra and Ridgewood Dr.
This list does not mean that workers won’t be in other areas, these are currently the areas with the highest concentration of outages. Please understand that workers will be in all areas that are still without power. Entergy Texas estimates that the majority of the area’s customers, who can safely take power, will be restored today.
Beaumont and Surrounding Areas
As of 8:00am, there are 124 customers without power in the Beaumont area. Overnight, approximately 1,400 customer’s power was restored. It is expected that the remaining Beaumont customers will be restored 12 noon today. Customers without power should call 1-800-968-8243 (1-800-9OUTAGE).
Safety Tips
For the safety of our crews, please stay away from their work zones. If you need to report a problem with your service or get bill payment help, we’re just a phone call away: 1-800-ENTERGY.
For additional preparation tips and updates visit www.entergy.com/stormcenter
As with any weather event, please be mindful of the following safety tips:
- Live wires can be deadly. Stay away from downed power lines. Call 1 800 9OUTAGE or1 800 968 8243 to report downed or dangling power lines, poles or other damaged equipment.
- Do not trim trees or remove debris on or near downed power lines. Only power company crews or their contractors should remove trees or limbs touching power lines.
- Keep away from the immediate areas where crews are working. There is always the danger of moving equipment and the possibility of construction materials or limbs or overhead wires falling to the ground.
- If you plan on using a generator for temporary power, get a licensed electrician and disconnect from the utility electric system before hooking up to your home main electric panel.
- Do not run a generator in a confined space without adequate ventilation.
- Avoid using candles or other flammable devices to warm your home.
- Check on seniors, who can be particularly susceptible to extreme temperatures.
- Try to stay off the roads in affected areas. More traffic in bad weather leads to more accidents, including more injuries and fatalities as well as accidents that can damage electrical poles and other equipment, creating outages and impeding the ability of crews to access and repair damage and slowing restoration.
Customer Information
- Customers who have a new advanced meter installed can check to see if their power is restored by logging into myEntergy. View ‘My Usage” on the dashboard. Select “hourly view” to see their most recent usage which is updated every four to five hours.
- Customers with property damage may require special action to speed their restoration:
- If your property has any damage, please turn off the electricity at either the main fuse box or circuit breaker.
- Call a licensed electrician for advice when necessary. A licensed electrician may need to inspect your property’s electric wiring before Entergy can restore power to a home or business which has water damage from rain or flood waters.
- For customers without property damage:
- Property owners without hurricane damage should be cautious.
- Look for electrical system damage once power is restored. If you see sparks, broken or frayed wires, or the smell of hot insulation is noticeable, turn off the electricity at either the main fuse box or circuit breaker.
- Call a licensed electrician for advice when necessary. Don’t step in water to get to the fuse box or circuit breaker.
- Entergy cannot restore power to a location with a damaged meter base, conduit or weather head (the metal pipe extending upward from the structure with electrical cables inside). They must be repaired by a qualified electrician before Entergy can restore power.
- As we repair damage, we concentrate first on critical services, then major lines to the substations, then to the lines and equipment serving neighborhoods, businesses and homes. 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.
- Responding to a major storm and COVID-19 could affect our response:
- Along with standard storm preparations, Entergy employees are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic by taking additional steps. These include traveling separately when possible, adjusting crew staging locations and increasing the use of drones.
- Due to the additional measures crews must take, restoration may take longer, especially where there are widespread outages. Additionally, crews will continue to practice social distancing and we ask that customers do the same. For their safety and yours, please stay away from work zones.
Information Resources
We want to keep you informed and in control so here is the best way to get information about outages in addition to the View Outage application:
- Download our app for your smartphone at entergy.com/app or visit entergystormcenter.com to stay informed on our restoration progress. Android users who have difficulty accessing the app on their smartphones can get information from the mobile version of our site at entergy.com.
- Sign up for text alerts by texting REG to 36778 and have your account number and ZIP code handy. The registration pattern is as follows including spaces: REG (account number) (ZIP code). Once registered, text OUT to 36778 to report an outage. You can also report an outage online as a guest.
- Follow us on Twitter.com/EntergyTX or Facebook.com/EntergyTX.
- Follow updates in your local news media, like radio, television and newspapers.
