NEW ORLEANS — Entergy New Orleans is gearing up amid Hurricane Francine. Entergy said they worked on vegetation management, cutting down trees and clearing debris on critical power lines before the storm.
Nearly 1,000 workers are in the city as part of Entergy's vegetation crew to help with restoration efforts after the storm.
"First and foremost, we prepared well in advance," said CEO of Entergy New Orleans, Deanna Rodriguez. "We also did some other things in advance of the storm."
"We did a lot of vegetation management to make sure as the winds come through, you don't see flying debris. You don't have limbs falling on wires," she said.
Rodriguez said the utility can't protect everything but has protected the most critical lines. Crews are in place to patrol 48 line miles, along with vegetation workers at 109 "hot spots," to prevent any damage caused by the wind.
Additional crews were brought in from across the nation to help restore power quickly post-Francine.
Rodriguez reminded residents to be safe and do not touch downed power lines and to be careful with generators.
If winds are above 30 mph, Entergy crews will not be sent out. A damage assessment must be completed first before restoration. Keeping crews safe is paramount.
"So once we start our phase of damage assessing and then as we get contract crews, we work in tandem to where we'll have some crews working overnight," Entergy New Orleans Communications Specialist Shelton Hudson said.
Hudson said the utility assesses how many customers have been impacted and what critical infrastructures were affected.
Entergy officials said they inspected its treatment facility and important feeders that power utilities like S&WB's pumping stations to make sure its in good standing.
"As outages occur, they know where they are and will notify crews as they come in and do restoration(s)," Rodriguez said.
She said Entergy New Orleans Power Station (NOPS), a 128-megawatt power station, is running. "We have it running right now; it is intended to stay on throughout the storm."
Hurricane Francine is expected to sweep across southeast Louisiana overnight. "[If] it's dark, we're not going to send people out unless it's a critical [or] urgent customer. Otherwise, we'll wait until daylight to send damage assessors out," Rodriguez said.
Entergy said they brought in 400 workers to help with damage assessment. "The fastest way we can get lights back on is to make sure we understand what damage occurred, and that's what we'll do."
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