Entergy says power restored to 39 percent of New Orleans customers; work continues throughout city and state

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - One week after Hurricane Ida devastated Louisiana’s power grid, electricity has been restored to approximately 39 percent of customers in Orleans Parish and to more than a third of customers statewide, officials with Entergy New Orleans and Entergy Louisiana said in a Sunday morning update.

Entergy New Orleans president and CEO Deanna Rodriguez and Entergy Louisiana president and CEO Phillip May provided the information, along with vice president of distribution John Hawkins. The officials said they understood the frustration of customers still waiting for energy restoration, but that it wasn’t until Sunday that the storm damage throughout the state had been 100 percent assessed.

“The level of destruction from this storm really has been unprecedented,” May said, noting that 30,679 power poles throughout the state had been cracked or sustained other severe storm damage. “That’s more than the total number of poles damaged in Hurricanes Katrina, Delta and Zeta combined.”

So far, crews have replaced 2,470 of the damaged poles, along with 4,980 strands of wire and 691 damaged transformers.

The officials acknowledged that the online Entergy outage maps are not consistently accurate, citing “data latency issues” they were working to resolve. To get the most accurate, updated power restoration information for a particular location, the officials urged customers to register for Entergy’s direct text message service.

To sign up for Entergy’s outage text notifications, open your smart device’s web browser and go to www.myentergy.com/s/. Then select “Manage Account,” then “Preferences.” Message and data rates may apply. For security purposes, if you are not the primary account holder, you must request that the primary account holder approve you as an authorized user. Once approved, you will receive an email that will allow you to set up notification preferences for the account.

The Entergy officials also said that if a customer’s power status shows “on” in their mobile app or account, but power still appears off, they should check the breakers at the location. If power still remains off, report the outage by texting OUT or calling 1-800-9OUTAGE (1-800-968-8243).

Customers can find the latest estimated restoration times for various areas at https://www.entergy.com/hurricaneida/etr/.

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