Nearly 240,000 residences and businesses in southeast Louisiana were without power as Hurricane Ida began to move inland early afternoon Sunday, after making landfall as a strong Category 4 hurricane just before noon.
To stay up to date if you lose power, text “Ida” to (504) 688-4438 for free storm updates from our staff.
The most affected areas are in Orleans and Jefferson parishes, where about 150,000 Entergy customers were without power because of the high winds that have battering the area.
The Entergy outages started in Plaquemines Parish soon after daybreak, running up from the mouth of Mississippi River and spreading through Orleans and Jefferson parishes. About 10,500 Plaquemines customers were without power, as were around 19,800 in Lafourche Parish, 10,500 in St. John the Baptist Parish and 6,500 in St. Bernard.
Orleans Parish
A total of about 67,000 customers were without power as of 1:30 p.m.
Jefferson Parish
Nearly 86,000 customers are without power as of 1:30 p.m.
St. Tammany
Cleco, which accounts for most of the customers on the north shore, reported that about 7,000 customers were without power, with almost all of the outages in the Slidell area.
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People should stay away from downed power lines and electric equipment and report it immediately by calling 1-800-9OUTAGE (800-968-8243).
“Do not walk in standing water and do not venture into areas of debris, since energized and dangerous power lines may not be visible,” Entergy said.
Entergy said that it has called on its “mutual assistance” agreement to bring in linemen and other repair staff from energy companies throughout the country. It said Saturday that it has about 16,000 repair staff staged and ready to restore power as soon as conditions are safe enough to do so.
Still, Entergy warned that it can take up to three weeks to restore power in the worst affected, hard to reach areas. It said it expects to restore 90% of power outages within 24 hours.
See the latest outages from Entergy in Louisiana.
See our full coverage of Hurricane Ida.
Staff writer Carlie Kollath Wells contributed to this story.
