NEW ORLEANS — Around 2,300 residents and business owners were shocked and sweaty Saturday night when the power abruptly went out in the Seventh Ward and Marigny.
Photos of what caused the outage were circulating on social media. The photos show a utility pole that fell on Brittain Crull's car.
Crull said around 8 p.m., she walked out of a business near St. Claude and Frenchmen to find her car destroyed.
"We heard the big bang, and we were like oh that sounded kind of like a car ran into the building or something like that," Crull said. "We go outside and it was the transformer hitting my car," she said, “It’s a 2022, it’s my first car I’ve ever bought as an adult so it’s definitely heartbreaking.”
Crull said the New Orleans Fire Department and Entergy responded to the scene.
“Live wires are kind of all over the place in the middle of Frenchmen," Crull said.
Frenchmen Street bars and restaurants were in the dark. Many closed during that time and reopened once power was restored.
Susie Beck's 7th Ward home lost power as well.
“We’ve been watching that pole for years, and the neighbors here have been concerned about it for years," Beck said.
Beck and her neighbors have taken photos of the Entergy pole leaning for months and claim they've reached out to the utility company.
Entergy told WWL Louisiana that a car struck a service pole owned by AT&T, causing their power pole to collapse onto Crull's car.
The driver that caused the domino effect took off, according to an Entergy New Orleans spokesperson.
An AT&T spokesperson told WWL Louisiana "We've investigated this claim and determined this was not our pole. Please direct further questions to Entergy."
“We have a major infrastructure problem, huge infrastructure problem, in this city," Beck said. "And if the companies responsible for the infrastructure aren’t taking responsibility and are just passing the buck back and forth to each other, that needs to be solved immediately," she said.
Crull said she's now in the process of dealing with her auto insurance.
“When I checked on it this morning, I was like this is absolutely totaled, no question," Crull said.
Entergy New Orleans says power was restored to the area in about two hours.
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