NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Francine came ashore with strong category-1 winds and raced through Lafourche, Terrebonne and then Orleans, Jefferson and the river parishes Wednesday late afternoon and evening, leaving more than 350,000 buildings without power.
The top question for most, especially as temperatures approach 90 degrees Thursday, is when will the power be back on.
Phillip May, the President and CEO of Entergy said Thursday that normally restoration for a category-1 or 2 storm would normally be about a week. He said it was too early to say when the hardest hit areas like Lafourche and Terrebonne, would have power restored.
In most cases, the power companies initially have to go out and assess the situation and determine what needs to be done. The priorities are usually hospitals and other essential services followed by grids that bring the most people back online first.
While it is likely that some power will be restored Thursday, it is unlikely to be restored everywhere in that time.
“This will be a marathon, not a sprint,” said Deanna Rodriguez president and CEO of Entergy New Orleans. “We’re going as fast and safe as we can. This is not just a restoration effort for us; it’s a matter of helping people get their lives back together as soon as possible.
Overnight it seemed that no power had been restored for anyone who had lost it.
Hurricane Francine came ashore with strong category-1 winds and raced through Lafourche, Terrebonne and then Orleans, Jefferson and the river parishes Wednesday late afternoon and evening, leaving more than 350,000 buildings without power.
The top question for most, especially as temperatures approach 90 degrees Thursday, is when will the power be back on.
In most cases, the power companies initially have to go out and assess the situation and determine what needs to be done. The priorities are usually hospitals and other essential services followed by grids that bring the most people back online first.
While it is likely that some power will be restored Thursday, it is unlikely to be restored everywhere in that time.
Overnight it seemed that no power had been restored for anyone who had lost it.
Here are the current statements from Entergy and Cleco:
Entergy
Estimated Times for Restoration by Parish
90% of affected customers in New Orleans are anticipated to be back online by Saturday, Sept. 14th - three days after impact, Entergy said in a release.
- Tangipahoa (Robert, Ponchatoula, Springfield, Hammond)
- Sept. 13, 10 pm
- Jefferson
- Sept. 14, 10 p.m.
- Orleans - East Bank
- Sept. 14, 10 pm
- Ascension
- Sept. 14, 10 pm
- St. John the Baptist
- Sept. 14, 10 pm
- St. James
- Sept. 14, 10 pm
- Tangipahoa (Kentwood, Independence, Amite)
- Sept. 14, 10 pm
- St. Charles
- Sept. 15, 10 pm
- Washington
- Sept. 15, 10 pm
- St. Helena
- Sept. 15, 10 pm
- Lafourche
- Sept. 15, 10 pm
- Terrebonne
- Sept. 16, 10 pm
- Assumption
- Sept. 15, 10 pm
Entergy crews, contractors, tree trimmers and scouts will begin assessing damage and restoring power as soon as it is safe to do so.
Once our workers can access the affected areas, we can begin restoring service to customers by closing circuit breakers, rerouting power and other means. But we must wait until sustained winds are less than 30 mph to use our bucket trucks. Significant flooding and other accessibility challenges due to the storm will affect our ability to reach some areas of our territory and could delay restoration in those communities.
Following a storm, we deploy scouts to assess damage. It may take up to three days before we know how long until power is restored. When restoration starts, keep in mind that if you don’t see us working near you, we may be working on another part of the electrical system that you can’t see but must be repaired to get power to you.
Cleco
Estimated Times for Restoration
Iberia
53 customers without power as of 5 p.m. All customers expected to have power restored Thursday night.
St. Tammany
3,691 customers without power as of 5 p.m. Thursday night, Cleco expects power to be restored to all customers except for roughly 1,000 customers in Slidell and less than 1,000 customers in Covington.
St. Mary
11,449 customers without power as of 5 p.m. Cleco expects to restore power to 50% of the remaining customers in Patterson, Bayou Vista and Berwick Thursday night.
View restoration times here.
- Check Cleco's outage map for the latest numbers.
- According to weather forecasts, Francine made landfall as a Category 2 Hurricane Wednesday night and moved across Louisiana this morning. The storm has been downgraded to a tropical depression.
- Cleco's hardest hit parishes were Iberia, St. Mary and St. Tammany.
- Crews are beginning to survey the damage and make repairs. So far, our damage assessments have uncovered broken poles, downed wire and some equipment damage.
- Cleco has 11 staging areas across the state with materials and equipment, as well as a team that includes Cleco employees and 1,755 additional line mechanics, tree trimmers and damage assessors.
Washington-St. Tammany Electric
- Check WSTE's outage map for latest numbers.
- To Report Power Outages Call: 1-866-672-9773
TPCG
- For utility billing, payment, and rate information, please contact Customer Service. To report a power outage or gas emergency, please contact (985) 873-6750.
South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association (SLECA)
- SLECA serves more than 17,000 customers in five parishes.
- Due to the storm surge that is expected with Hurricane Francine, we have de-energized the lines at the end of Dularge and Four Point south of the levee system.
- After the storm, when assessments have been done on the system, we will begin working on restoring power to our members.