Entergy Restores Power to More Than 75% of Customers Following Hurricane Delta

As of Oct. 12, 8:30 a.m., Entergy restored power to more than 75% of its customers impacted by Hurricane Delta across its service area.

Company crews continued damage assessment in remaining areas without power. The assessment process began as soon as it was safe to do so, following the storm.

Hurricane Delta made landfall as a Category 2 storm on the evening of Oct. 9, near Creole, Louisiana, with winds approaching 100 mph. As it moved inland, the storm weakened to a Category 1 and then to a tropical storm.

"Crews made significant progress during the first full day of restoration work following Hurricane Delta. Our crews continue to restore power and assess damages in some of the hardest-hit areas," said Eli Viamontes, Entergy's vice president of utility distribution operations. "Damage assessments are an important step in Entergy's restoration process as it helps us determine the exact cause of outages and how long it will take to restore power. The company is using drones, helicopters, and highwater vehicles to assess damage in hard-to-access areas."

Entergy said customers might have to experience extended power outages, given the additional need for crews to follow COVID-19 precautionary measures. Hardest-hit areas could experience outages for up to 10 days, with restoration hampered by flooding, blocked access, or other obstacles. For the safety of crews and all those involved, Entergy requested customers to stay away from work zones.

Outage information as of Oct. 12, 6 a.m.

Entergy had approximately 13,350 workers activated for storm restoration. These resources included company employees, contractors, and mutual aid resources numbering approximately 115 in Arkansas, 2300 in Mississippi, 8600 in Louisiana, and 2100 in Texas. Restoration workers from 27 states helped restore service for Entergy customers.

A total of 215 substations and 162 transmission lines saw an outage as a result of Hurricane Delta. On the morning of Oct. 12, transmission had returned 176 substations and 107 lines to service.

As of Oct. 11, 9 p.m., distribution system damage included 1213 poles, 376 transformers, and 3240 spans of wire.

Louisiana update

As of Oct. 12, crews restored power to 78% customers affected by Hurricane Delta. Entergy had a Louisiana storm team of 8600 responding to customers still without power.

At its peak, Delta left more than 325,000 Louisiana customers without power. Heavy vegetation and damaged equipment in backyards continued to pose challenges for crews.

Texas update

Remaining outages were primarily concentrated in the Beaumont, Orange, and Port Arthur areas, as of Oct. 12.

In some hard-to-access locations, crews had to climb poles rather than use bucket trucks or bring in specialized equipment like rear-alley machines to repair damage in customers' backyards.

High-voltage transmission line damage assessments were 100% complete and assessments indicated minimal transmission damage. This would allow for facilities to be restored much more quickly than in Hurricane Laura. Crews were expected to repair portions of the company's 69-kV and 230-kV lines to continue support of the dual source ties on the system.

Based on initial damage assessments, Entergy Texas expected to restore most customers in the Beaumont, Orange, and Port Arthur areas by Oct 14. There could be some customers in especially hard-hit areas who would be restored by Oct 16.

Mississippi update

Entergy crews and additional resource workers continued to make significant progress restoring power to the over 50,000 customers who lost power on Oct. 10 as a result of Hurricane Delta. As of Oct. 12, 7 a.m., 93% had been restored.

Entergy follows a methodical plan of power restoration that has proven effective during past storms. First, crews concentrate on restoring power to critical community infrastructure and essential services such as hospitals, water treatment plants, police and fire stations, and communication systems. Then, resources are directed to work that safely restores the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible.