In an effort to protect its customers and ensure continued progress in restoring power and gas service to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Entergy Corp.'s New Orleans subsidiary, Entergy New Orleans Inc., filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on Sept. 23.

Simultaneous with this filing, Entergy New Orleans filed a motion with the court for “debtor-in-possession” financing that contemplates Entergy Corp. making loans up to US$200 million to Entergy New Orleans to address the subsidiary's current liquidity crisis. The petition also requests that up to $150 million of these loans be approved on an interim basis. These funds will enable Entergy New Orleans to meet its near-term obligations, including employee wages and benefits, payments under power purchase and gas supply agreements, as well as its current efforts to repair and restore the facilities needed to serve its electric and gas customers.

Entergy Corp. trusts that the bankruptcy court will act swiftly to approve its debtor-in-possession financing for Entergy New Orleans. Entergy New Orleans, which provides electric and natural gas service to customers within the city of New Orleans, is the smallest of Entergy's five utility companies and represented about 7% of its consolidated revenues and 3% of its consolidated earnings in 2004. Neither Entergy Corp. nor any of its other utility and nonutility subsidiaries were included in the bankruptcy filing.