About half the Entergy customers who lost electricity because of Hurricane Ida are still without power, but the company said the pace of this recovery should be celebrated considering the devastating damage caused by Hurricane Ida.
“It is near-miraculous the speed at which we’ve been able to restore customers,” Entergy New Orleans President and CEO Deanna Rodriguez said during a phone call with media members on Monday.
Of the roughly 430,000 customers still without power, about 75,000 of them are in New Orleans as of Monday morning. Entergy said it’s still on track to restore power to 90% of customers in the city by Wednesday, but crews are starting to see more damage than they originally spotted, meaning some people may have to wait longer for the lights to come back.
Ida, which made landfall just short of being a Category 5 hurricane, took down more power poles than hurricanes Zeta, Delta and Katrina combined.
Despite Entergy’s outage map showing streets with restored power, some residents living in those areas have said the lights are still off. Entergy said that’s due to having to sometimes shut off power to an area while working to restore the grid. The outage map also only indicates when power has been restored to the power lines on a street —meaning there could be more damage preventing the electricity from reaching streetlights or homes.
The best way for someone to find out the power status for their specific address is to use Entergy’s app or to sign up for texts. Customers can sign up for alerts and status updates by texting 36778 with the phrase “REG.”
Details of power restoration timelines for specific neighborhoods in New Orleans can be found here.
The utility predicts the hardest-hit areas along the gulf coast should have most of their power back by September 29th.
Nearly all customers in the greater Baton Rouge regions now have power back. Entergy previously predicted Tuesday as the area's restoration date.
Here are the latest predictions from Entergy for restoring power to 90 percent of customers in these parishes:
- Ascension Parish, Sept. 7
- Assumption Parish, Sept. 22
- East Bank of Jefferson Parish, Sept. 8
- Lafourche Parish, Sept. 29
- Livingston Parish, Sept. 7
- Lower Jefferson Parish, Sept.29
- Plaquemines Parish, Sept. 29
- St. Bernard Parish, Sept. 7
- St. Charles Parish, Sept. 29
- St. James Parish, Sept. 17
- St. John Parish, Sept. 17
- St. Tammany Parish, Sept. 10
- Tangipahoa Parish, Sept. 17
- Terrebonne Parish, Sept. 29
- Washington Parish, Sept. 10
- Westbank of Jefferson Parish, Sept. 8
Late fees will be suspended for customers, Entergy announced Monday, and disconnects will also be halted, though the utility did not say for how long. Entergy also warned it’s monitoring a tropical disturbance in the Gulf. While the utility said it’s unlikely to develop, the weather could bring a lot of rain and winds that further delay power restoration.
