NEW ORLEANS — More than 92,000 Entergy customers were without power across Louisiana because of the unexpected strength of winds from Tropical Storm Olga early Saturday morning.
By 7:30 a.m. Sunday, around 27,000 homes and businesses covered by Entergy statewide were still in the dark, despite an estimate from the utility that most customers would have their power back late Saturday night.
Some customers won't get power back until Sunday evening, the spokesperson said.
The outage closed businesses, had residents concerned about food in their refrigerators and freezers and came at an inopportune time as tens of thousands locally planned on watching LSU take on Auburn in the season's biggest game to date for the Tigers.
"That's the worst-case scenario for most customers," Sabatini said. "People can expect their power to be restored sooner than 6 p.m. in most cases."
Sabatini told WWL-TV that one of the reasons the estimated recovery time is so late is the damage to the power network.
Winds at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reached 50 mph with gusts of nearly 60 mph on Saturday morning. Those winds blew down many trees and power lines, Sabatini said.
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To restore power, Entergy linemen have to repair a significant portion of the power network, Sabatini said. They weren't able to get in bucket trucks to make repairs until winds were under 30 mph.
Entergy had 800 people working on restoring power Saturday afternoon, Sabatini said. More are expected to join the effort before restoration is complete.
Sabatini also said people should treat all downed lines as live ones.
Another 24,000 Cleco customers and 10,600 Washington St. Tammany Electric customers were also without power on the Northshore, with repair efforts underway there as well.
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