Under their existing two-and-a-half-year relationship, Entergy Corporation Wednesday asked the international crisis management and security consulting firm founded by former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to counsel the company in coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Giuliani Partners LLC has since 2002 consulted with the company's Entergy Nuclear Northeast subsidiary on security, crisis management, evacuation plans and related matters at its five Entergy nuclear plants in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts. The Giuliani Partners assistance in the wake of the hurricane is an extension of that contract.

The electric utility, which serves large portions of storm-damaged Mississippi and Louisiana, including the New Orleans metropolitan area, said Giuliani Partners is providing the company with recovery advice in the wake of the hurricane that devastated large portions of the two states, including New Orleans and its suburbs.

"Rudy Giuliani is a proven leader and his team of experts are probably the most acclaimed crisis managers in the world," said J. Wayne Leonard, chief executive officer. "We think they can provide enormously valuable advice in helping us ensure that we address all key priorities as the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, along with the city of New Orleans, try to recover from the Hurricane Katrina disaster."

Leonard said Entergy believes the services of Giuliani Partners, "Will be invaluable in meeting the enormous challenges that this region confronts in providing humanitarian relief, maintaining order and repairing the infrastructure that's been damaged."

In addition to former Mayor Giuliani himself, many of the firm's senior executives were high-ranking New York City officials during the Giuliani administration. Among them are Founding Partner and Senior Managing Director Michael D. Hess, who was New York's corporate counsel; Senior Vice President Richard J. Scheirer, who was the city's commissioner of emergency management; and Senior Vice President Thomas Von Essen, who was New York's fire commissioner.