NEW ORLEANS — Nearly 10,000 Entergy customers and businesses had to adjust their plans after an animal, believed to be a bird, caused a power outage after getting in to the utility's electrical equipment.
Wednesday's outage went across parts of the Central Business District, Mid-City, Central City and Treme, including Warren Easton High School and the Smoothie King Center.
By noon, the majority of customers had power restored, but several hundred in the CBD were still left in the dark.
Charles Pagano walked into Aroma Indian Cuisine around 11 a.m. to find the restaurant didn't have power.
"I thought 'yea, Indian food! It's right on my way," Pagano said. "I saw it was kind of dark."
The restaurant was staying closed without power, hoping it would be restored quickly so they could open to customers. That business was one of 9,800 Entergy New Orleans customers who lost power. According to Entergy, crews believe a bird may have damaged electrical equipment and caused the outage that stretched across the CBD, Mid-City, and parts of Uptown. City Council President Helena Moreno said the outage may have started at the Derbigny substation.
Living in this area, I think everyone is used to adjusting on the go," said Mason Seals, the manager of the PJ's Coffee on Poydras.
That PJ's location remained open without lights, serving a limited menu.
"We couldn’t heat, we couldn’t steam the milk and were just serving iced coffee and the food as it is," Seals said.
He said it caused a slower day for business.
"Certainly a little bit, especially with it being chilly at the moment, people want hot coffee," Seals said.
At Warren Easton High School in Mid-City, busses and parents picked up students around 10 a.m. due to the outage.
"We was chilling in P.E. playing volleyball and all of a sudden the lights went out," said student Alex Mitchell. "All of a sudden we found out we was going home and everybody starting celebrating, screaming and the whole gym went crazy."
"From a safety perspective, we decided it was best to send everybody home," said Principal Mervin Jackson.
This is the second time in less than a year that Entergy blamed a bird for knocking out power at the Derbigny substation. Last year, Entergy proposed installing a laser system to deter birds, but that project is still in the works.
Entergy estimated some of the customers in the CBD may have power restored by 6 a.m. Thursday.