Entergy Louisiana, LLC and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, L.L.C. earned Piccadilly Restaurant’s first-ever Vendor of the Year award last week in recognition of the work the two utility companies did to restore power across Louisiana following hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

”We are honored to receive this recognition from Piccadilly,” said Ed Melendreras, vice president of sales and marketing. “Our goal after any outage, large or small, is to get the lights back on for our customers as quickly and as safely as possible. It takes the coordinated efforts of our many hard-working employees, volunteer workers from other states and the dedication of our partners in the community.”

The Piccadilly “Vendor of the Year” Award honors a company that exemplifies outstanding commitment and service to its customers and the community. Entergy was chosen for this award because it went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that power was restored to its customers quickly and safely.

“Piccadilly is proud to recognize Entergy’s relief efforts following hurricanes Gustav and Ike earlier this year,” said Tom Sandeman, chief financial officer of Piccadilly. “By tracking and communicating changes in storm paths to our management team, Entergy made it possible for us to coordinate efforts with disaster recovery agencies, allowing Piccadilly to serve over 260,000 meals to evacuees during and after these storms.”

Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana had more than 721,000 customers lose power after Gustav and another 116,000 lose power as a result of Ike. Entergy’s utility companies set a record for the fastest and safest storm restoration effort in the company’s history after Gustav made landfall Sept. 1. Crews restored power to 85 percent of customers within eight days. By comparison, it took 13 days to reach that level for Hurricane Rita and 16 days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

In Louisiana, Gustav had a more severe impact on customers than either Katrina or Rita due to sustained wind levels. From an equipment standpoint, Gustav alone damaged more than 10,000 utility poles and 4,000 transformers. The storm also knocked out a total of 217 transmission lines and 273 substations throughout the state.

Entergy had a team of 14,000 restoration workers striving to restore power after Gustav. Restoration workers from 133 other utility companies from 34 states, the District of Columbia and Canada were brought in to aid renovations.

“One of Piccadilly’s core beliefs is that our success comes from the service we give,” Sandeman added. “We believe Entergy’s actions during hurricanes Gustav and Ike embody that core belief. They did the right thing thousands of times during those two storms and Piccadilly will be forever grateful.”