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Storm Center > Entergy Texas Morning Restoration Update - 8/31/20 @ 8 a.m.
Entergy Texas Morning Restoration Update - 8/31/20 @ 8 a.m.
08/31/2020
Hurricane Laura
August 31, 2020 Monday, 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 7:30 a.m., Entergy Texas has 53,576 customers without power compared to the peak of 291,300 customers. This reflects that 237,724 customers have been restored since the peak of the storm.
Entergy Texas has deployed approximately 7,000 workers in the impacted areas and is making repairs, including broken poles, wire down, pole equipment, and fallen trees damage. Entergy Texas employees and contractors continue to follow COVID-19 procedures to ensure the safety of our workforce.
Crews have been very successful in making repairs to our distribution system and services to individual households; however, crews continue to face significant obstacles to restore our transmission system, which was heavily impacted by Laura.
Our electric system is still in a very fragile state, and we are taking steps to improve system conditions, but the damage to our transmission system is significant. For customers to begin receiving power in the Golden Triangle area, the transmission lines must first be repaired. Those that received major damage may need to be reconstructed in part. Once the transmission lines are flowing electricity into the area into the substations, then through the distribution lines, homes and businesses will accept power.
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. Without these lines in service, it makes it difficult to move power across the system to customers in the affected areas.
For customers in the Golden Triangle area, restoring power may take longer than expected as a result of damage to transmission lines serving your area. As more generation and transmission services are available in Texas, this should help improve our ability to finalize our restoration efforts.
Due to instability of the system caused by loss of high voltage transmission lines, customers remaining without power in Beaumont will be restored August 31, Port Arthur, Nederland and Port Neches by August 31, Groves September 1 and the Orange area is estimated by September 4.
Beaumont and Surrounding Areas
As of 7:30 a.m., there are 2,327 customers without power in the Beaumont area. Approximately 100 workers remain working in Beaumont, China, Bevil Oaks and Sour Lake.
Damage assessments are 100% complete. Crews have identified 87 poles down, 37 transformers blown, and more than 40,000 feet of wire that need replacement.
Servicemen continue working and making repairs in:
- South Beaumont – near Lamar University around Lavaca and Ector;
- Central Beaumont – Liberty-Laurel corridor area;
- North Beaumont – Minglewood neighborhood and surrounding areas;
- West Beaumont – near Major and College.
Due to the need for continued work on the high voltage transmission lines serving your area, customers remaining without power in Beaumont will be restored Monday, August 31.
Orange and Surrounding Areas
As of 7:30 a.m., 33,379 customers in the Orange and surrounding areas are without power. Last night, the first feeder out of Orange Bulk was energized, which serves the business area around Strickland Drive and Highway 87, including Baptist Hospital.
The Entergy transmission system was severely damaged by the storm. That system provides power to several substations in the Orange area and has prevented the restoring of some customers in these areas. Workers are repairing lines and equipment in our distribution system while our transmission workers are making necessary repairs or rebuilding its infrastructure. Once the transmission power is restored and the substations are energized, many customers should receive power.
There are 855 poles to be replaced, 1211 spans of wire down (302,750 feet of wire down), 482 transformers need to be replaced.
Entergy Texas focus this morning is the Little Cypress Mauriceville area and working around the Echo substation. To support all the extra crews in the area, we have established a new staging site at LCM High School is up.
We are also putting an extra focus on sending additional crews to the Bridge City area, south of Highway 87. Our teams are bringing in extra off-road equipment to help access and restore this area. We also expect to bring in 20 extra vegetation crews.
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 7:30 a.m., there are 17,779 customers without power in area that include Groves, Nederland, Port Arthur, Port Neches, Sabine Pass & Taylor Landing. Sunday evening, workers restored power to approximately 1000 customers in the areas of Port Arthur, along Lewis Dr. between Jefferson and Memorial, Port Neches along Grigsby, Nederland between Hwy 365 and Helena.
The Entergy large voltage transmission system was severely damaged by the storm and is the cause of many of the outages. Several substations in Groves, Port Arthur and Port Neches cannot receive power until that transmission system is repaired. Transmission restoration continues to be a top priority as workers continue to repair the damage. Workers are also in these same areas repairing the localized damage so that once transmission power is restored and these substations are energized, many without power will be restored.
Entergy Scouts have completed the assessment of these areas and have identified all 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.
Entergy Texas has approximately 1,300 workers assisting in the Port Arthur Network restoration effort, including approximately 1,000 Linemen, 100 vegetation workers and 200 scouts. Restoration personnel are currently working to restore power to all areas that have been impacted. Entergy Texas estimates that the majority of the area’s customers, who can safely take power, will be restored by Monday, August 31. Due to the transmission power damage, some Groves customers may not be restored until Tuesday, September 1.
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 or 1-800-968-8243 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.
