After Hurricane Francine passed through Louisiana on Wednesday with winds upwards of 120 miles per hour, more than 100,000 residents still woke up on Friday morning without power. Both Entergy and Cleco have published restoration numbers and restoration dates/times for parishes still without power.
Cleco serves 295,000 customers in Louisiana. On Thursday, Cleco restored power to all but 5,000 of its customers as 4,684 customers remain without power in St. Mary Parish, followed by 464 in St. Tammany, and 42 in Washington Parish. Cleco has assessed damage across 95% of the affected areas and found 67 broken poles and 390 spans of downed wire. The company has over 1,700 contractors working to clear debris, make repairs, and restore power.
“We are proud of our crews, and are still hard at work to restore power to our remaining customers,” said Clint Robichaux, Cleco’s director of distribution operations and reliability. “Now that most of the impacted areas have been assessed for damage, we are able to offer additional estimated times for power restoration. We expect full power restoration in St. Tammany and Washington parishes by Saturday, and customers in St. Mary Parish will be restored by Sunday.”
As of 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Entergy’s Louisiana storm team of 6,000 restoration workers has restored more than 50% of the over 300,000 who lost electric service. Entergy reported in its Thursday press conference that the hardest-hit areas appeared to be coastal parts of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, as well as Assumption and Ascension parishes — regions that faced some of the strongest winds. Hurricane Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish as a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of around 100 miles per hour.
According to the Entergy outages map, approximately 25,000 customers remain without power in Jefferson Parish, 25,000 in Lafourche, 23,000 in Terrebonne, 14,000 in Orleans, and more than 100,000 in Baton Rouge.
“This will be a marathon, not a sprint,” said Deanna Rodriguez, Entergy New Orleans President and CEO. “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.”
Entergy Louisiana, LLC provides electric service to more than 1 million customers in 58 parishes. Entergy New Orleans, LLC is an electric and gas utility that serves Louisiana’s Orleans Parish. The company provides electricity to more than 209,000 customers. Both companies are subsidiaries of Entergy Corporation, a Fortune 500 company that powers life for 3 million customers through operating companies in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Entergy published anticipated restoration times and dates for the following parishes (Note: St. Bernard, St. Martin, and Plaquemines were scheduled for Thursday at 10 p.m.):
Tangipahoa (Robert, Ponchatoula, Springfield, Hammond), Sept. 13, 10 p.m.
Iberville, Sept. 13, 10 p.m.
Tammany, Sept. 13, 10 p.m.
Orleans – West Bank, Sept. 13, Noon
Livingston, Sept. 13, Noon
East Baton Rouge, Sept. 14, Noon
Jefferson, Sept. 14, 10 p.m.
Orleans – East Bank, Sept. 14, 10 p.m.
Ascension, Sept. 14, 10 p.m.
John the Baptist, Sept. 14, 10 p.m.
James, Sept. 14, 10 p.m.
Tangipahoa (Kentwood, Independence, Amite), Sept. 15, 10 p.m.
Charles, Sept. 15, 10 p.m.
Washington, Sept. 15, 10 p.m.
Helena, Sept. 15, 10 p.m.
Lafourche, Sept. 16, 10 p.m.
Terrebonne, Sept. 16, 10 p.m.
Assumption, Sept. 16, 10 p.m.
“Just like in past hurricanes, we ask all of our customers – those who have had power restored and those still waiting – to be patient as we work to make repairs,” said Phillip May, Entergy Louisiana President and CEO. “We understand our customers want to know when they’re going to get their power back and we’re eager to provide that information to them.”
