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Insights > Hurricane Laura Restoration Update - 9/11/20 @ 9:45 a.m.
Hurricane Laura Restoration Update - 9/11/20 @ 9:45 a.m.
09/11/2020
As of 9:45 a.m. Sept. 11, approximately 67,659 remain without power in Calcasieu and Cameron parishes in Louisiana. Outages numbers could fluctuate due to bad weather or other temporary causes.
Entergy’s Hurricane Laura information website provides customers with storm restoration and recovery updates. Visit the site at entergy.com/hurricanelaura.
Entergy Louisiana successfully restarted one of its power plants in Calcasieu Parish Sept 9. This achievement paves the way for restoring power to additional communities impacted by Hurricane Laura in Sulphur and Lake Charles.
Initially, the plant will provide power to thousands of customers in the area predominately south of Interstate 210 and west of Lake Street, the commercial district and surrounding communities on Nelson Road to Country Club Road and a portion of the Prien area.
Crews brought the Calcasieu Plant online, in part, by sending power to the facility by way of a repaired transmission line. This line is the first of nine high-voltage lines into the Lake Charles area to be repaired.
Customers receiving power are along undamaged or repaired paths connected to the Calcasieu Plant. Some customers may have damage to the electric equipment on the exterior of their home. To learn more about the steps you should take if your home’s exterior electric equipment was damaged, visit Entergy’s Storm Center. And to learn more about electrical equipment that serves your home and whether the equipment is yours or Entergy’s, click here.
It will be a slow, methodical and controlled process, but customers have our commitment that we will not stop repairing and rebuilding the electric system until every customer who was impacted by the storm has power available to them.
As a result of extensive damage to the transmission infrastructure serving this area, the transmission and distribution systems will require nearly a complete rebuild. As more generation and transmission services are available in southwest Louisiana, this should help improve our ability to finalize our restoration efforts.
The company expects it may be late September before power is available to most customers in Southwest Louisiana who can safely receive it. Due to the complexity of the restoration effort, restoring power may take longer for some customers in the region.
Transmission
Hurricane Laura’s historic intensity caused catastrophic damage to the Entergy system across Louisiana and Texas.
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. Power must be restored to transmission lines and substations in order to energize the distribution lines that serve businesses and homes. Without these lines in service, it makes it difficult to move power across the system to customers in the affected areas.
If the grid and the flow of power were compared to our highway system, transmission lines would be the interstates, substations would be the off-ramps and distribution lines would be the streets and roads that lead to homes and businesses.
Louisiana Update
All nine transmission lines that deliver power into Southwest Louisiana were catastrophically damaged. The damage caused by Hurricane Laura is some of the most severe the company has experienced.
Entergy Louisiana energized the first of its transmission lines into Lake Charles Sept. 9. This will allow more customers to begin receiving power in Southwest Louisiana as the remaining transmission lines must be rebuilt.
Transmission lines that received major damage may need to be fully reconstructed in parts. Once the transmission lines are flowing electricity into the city’s substations, then power can flow through the distribution lines to homes and businesses that are able to accept power.
We also will reconfigure our electricity delivery system where feasible to return power to some customers more quickly. Once repairs are completed, we will return the system to normal configuration.
Although the power grid in Southwest Louisiana will lack the redundancies that are in place when the transmission system is in full operation, Entergy Louisiana’s engineering and operations teams are developing a plan to maintain the stability of the system.
We use peak outages, which measure a moment in time, to indicate our restoration progress. Over the course of the storm and our restoration, the company has restored 384,296 individual outages in Louisiana as of 7 a.m. Sept. 11.
Louisiana statewide damaged distribution equipment replaced includes 10,608 poles, 2,778 transformers and 22,654 spans of wire as of 8 a.m. Sept. 10.
Lake Charles/Sulphur damaged distribution equipment replaced includes 8,809 poles, 2,313 transformers and 18,254 spans of wire as of 8 a.m. Sept. 10.
Texas Update
The damage from Hurricane Laura has eliminated much of the redundancy built into the transmission system, which makes it difficult to move power around the region to customers. These conditions, along with increasing demand during periods of higher temperatures, can result in an imbalance of supply and demand for electricity.
The transmission system plays a critical role in delivering power from the power plant to the lines serving customers’ neighborhoods.
Entergy continues its focus on repairing the catastrophic damage to the transmission system across Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana, which together provide power to the eastern portion of Texas.
While these transmission structures are being repaired, Entergy Texas’ engineering and operations groups are working closely, along with our reliability coordinator Midcontinent Independent System Operator, to ensure the safe and stable operation of the electric grid.
Resources
Our crews, contractors and mutual-assistance partners are working long hours restoring service to customers as safely and as quickly as possible. We have pulled in people from all over the country to work long hours.
Our restoration workforce includes our own employees, contractors and mutual assistance crews from other companies. As power was restored in parts of the territory, some workers have been released. The 23,200 workers originally brought in to restore service comprised the largest restoration effort we have ever mobilized.
Restoration workers from 30 states have helped restore service for our customers. Donor states include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Customer Information
Given the intensity of this storm and the additional need for our crews to follow COVID-19 precautionary measures, hardest hit areas may experience outages for weeks. In addition, restoration may be hampered by blocked access or other obstacles.
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 water damage, turn off the electricity at either the main fuse box or circuit breaker. Don’t step in water to get to the fuse box or circuit breaker.
- Call a licensed electrician for advice when necessary. A licensed electrician’s inspection of your property’s electric wiring may be needed before Entergy can restore power to a home or business that has water damage from rain or flooding.
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.
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.
For our industrial customers, restoration priority is to power critical community services such as fire, police, hospitals and water and communication services. As we restore service to residential, commercial and industrial customers, we must do it in a way that balances the needs of our customers with the ability to support additional load as the system permits.
Stay Informed
- We know you want information about your outage. Given the intensity of this storm and the additional need for our crews to follow COVID-19 precautionary measures, hardest hit areas may experience outages for weeks. In addition, restoration may be hampered by flooding, blocked access or other obstacles.
- In addition to disruption of normal business operations, customers may experience delays when calling our telephone centers, especially from unaffected areas, due to overloading of the system with outage calls. We encourage customers to use these other means to interact with us during restoration:
- Download our free app for your smartphone at entergy.com/app.
- 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.
- Visit the Entergy Storm Center website and our View Outages.
- Follow us on Twitter.com/entergy or Facebook.com/entergy.
- Call us at 800-9OUTAGE (1-800-968-8243).
- Follow updates in your local news media, like radio, television and newspapers.
- Once these storms pass, we can fully assess the damage and will have more information to share.
Unfortunately, we are seeing an increase in attempts to scam our customers following Hurricane Laura.
- Entergy never demands immediate payment from customers over the phone. You shouldn't give your personal information to strangers.
- If a call sounds suspicious, hang-up and call 1-800-ENTERGY (1-800-368-3749) to speak directly with an Entergy customer service representative.
- If you believe you are a victim of this scam, notify the proper authorities, such as the local police or the state attorney general's office.
Customer Safety
- You should stay safe as we restore service outages caused by Hurricane Laura.
- There is no way to know if a downed line is energized or not, so if you see one, keep your distance and call 1-800-9OUTAGE (1-800-968-8243).
- Stay safe and away from downed power lines and flooded areas. Do not walk in standing water and do not venture into areas of debris, since energized and dangerous power lines may not be visible.
- Customers choosing to use portable electric generators should do so in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Customers must never connect a generator directly to a building’s wiring without a licensed electrician disconnecting the house wiring from Entergy’s service. Otherwise, it can create a safety hazard for the customer or our linemen working to restore power. And it may damage the generator or the house wiring.
- Restoration workers who discover a generator attached directly to Entergy’s system will work with the customer to disconnect the generator. As a last resort, the restoration worker will disconnect the customer’s service connection to Entergy, which may take an extended time to reconnect due to the extensive restoration effort underway.
Storm restoration photos and videos
