Hurricane Isaac Pounds South Louisiana

Customer Outages Total 409,000; More Expected as Storm Moves Through Louisiana

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Aug 29, 2012, 07:16 ET

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hurricane Isaac's high winds and slow trek through southeastern Louisiana have caused extensive outages to Entergy's power grid. As of 5 a.m. Wednesday, 409,000 customers were without electricity in Louisiana.

Isaac came ashore in Plaquemines Parish at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. Its slow crawl along coastal Louisiana parishes caused high winds and rain squalls to continually pound southeastern Louisiana throughout the night. The storm's high winds are lingering in south Louisiana, causing the restoration process to be delayed. Crews are not able to hit the streets in full force until the winds are below 30 mph.

"Isaac is testing everyone's patience with its slow movement through south Louisiana," said Bill Mohl, Entergy Louisiana, LLC president and CEO. "We are ready to mount a counterattack to Isaac's onslaught just as soon as the weather conditions allow us to do so."

Entergy spent the past several days amassing a workforce of more than 4,000 company and contract workers to respond to Isaac's aftermath. Very early assessments indicate the company will be facing a range of rebuilding and restoration challenges, including debris damage, downed power lines and significant damage due to trees falling on equipment and taking down power lines.

"Isaac is not done in Louisiana," Mohl said. "It continues to move through the state with its high winds causing power outages in its wake. We'll start restoring power where and when we can and move resources across the state as needed."

The company continues to urge everyone to be safe, including customers and Entergy personnel and contractors. Stay away from downed power lines as well as flooded areas. Do not walk in standing water and do not venture into areas of debris since you may not be able to see a power line that could still be energized and dangerous.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation's leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.

SOURCE Entergy Corporation