Mass Power Outages Reported In Louisiana; Hurricane Ida Could Leave Residents In Dark For Weeks

Hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents were without power Sunday afternoon as Hurricane Ida began moving over the New Orleans area.

At about 2 p.m., 294,004 customers in the state were without electricity, according to data provided by power company Entergy Louisiana.

Most of those outages were in Jefferson parish, with 79,913 residences without power and in Orleans Parish with 65,186 homes in the dark as of 1:30 p.m. Those numbers are changing rapidly, and officials expect the number of outages to grow once Ida moves over cities New Orleans and Baton Rouge with sustained winds of up to 100 mph.

To find the latest Entergy outage numbers, click here.

“Where the wind blows and hits a transmission line or a feed or anything like that, we will have outages,” said Ramsey Green, deputy chief administrator for infrastructure in New Orleans. “And given that the winds are where they are, there's really nothing anybody can do about it.”

In a press conference this morning, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Entergy New Orleans would not be able to restore service during the storm. An advisory from the power company Saturday noted that Louisiana residents could be out of electricity for weeks. Entergy said it would be able to fix most outages within a few weeks.

“We have to wait until the storm subsides and then we can do something about it.”

Green also said that power to the sewage lift station was impacted by the storm, reducing the ability for wastewater to go through the system. He asked that residents in New Orleans reduce the amount of water they are using to alleviate pressure on the system.

He explained that Entergy New Orleans had dedicated ten generators to addressing issues with sewage, but that fixing any challenges while the extremely dangerous storm passes may not be possible.

“We are anticipating 15 to 20 inches of rain inside of a 24 or 48 hour period,” Green said. “We're concerned about flooding — primarily right-of-way flooding and low-lying areas. And we are not into the thick of this yet. It is going, and it's only going to get worse for a little while.”

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