NEW ORLEANS — Update: As of 4 p.m. Monday, 2,000 Cleco customers remained without power on the Northshore.
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Progress is being made to restore power to Cleco customers in St. Tammany and Washington Parish.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, 23,000 of 28,000 customers who lost power after Tropical Storm Olga have their lights back on, but the many people who are without power will have to brave through another cold night.
Dominique Peterson, a resident in the West 30s neighborhood of Covington, has been without power for nearly two days.
"When the wire fell. It fell in the water, and it started sparking," Peterson said. We had to hurry up and get out of the house. We had to go out the back because trees fell on our porch.”
In addition to having to deal with the power outage, Peterson's car and her mom's were badly damaged from fallen trees. She’s lucky her family escaped before things got worse.
Trinity Isabelle Arnold from Covington has no food to feed her children.
"The refrigerator — all the food has gone out, so it's hard to feed two kids with no electricity," Trinity Arnold said.
Electricity crews have been in and out of Trinity Arnold's neighborhood but have not made a stop to fix the issue, according to neighbors.
Councilmember Peter Lewis says Cleco has been working to restore power, but getting help is difficult.
"I've reached out to Red Cross. They referred me to (the Office of Emergency Preparedness)," Lewis said. "Right now, it looks like we don't qualify for any assistance (from the) parish or state, so our biggest struggle is getting the basic necessities to residents."
Even though power is being restored throughout the area, it was a bit too late for some people. William Arnold has insulin medicine, but he could not keep it cold.
"All my insulin is gone," Willliam Arnold said. That is thousands of dollars gone."
Neighbors continue to wait, hoping to see their lights turned back on soon, including Nathaniel Jackson.
"Maybe they give us a little bit of help," Jackson said. "Maybe we could help ourselves a little bit.”
Leaders in Covington have been donating water to neighbors as they wait for the power to be restored. However, they are still looking for more resources to help residents. Reach out to Councilmember Peter Lewis (plewis@covla.com) or Councilman at Large Patrick McMath (pmcmath@covla.com), if you think you can help.
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