Tropical Storm Francine is expected to make landfall in southwest Louisiana on Wednesday and the state's major electricity providers are telling customers to prepare for power outages.
Entergy issued advisories to its 1.3 million customers to take precautions and have a storm plan in place. The utility also advised them to stay in touch for regular updates about outages and estimated restoration times through social media, including both Entergy Louisiana's and Entergy New Orleans' Facebook and X pages.
Entergy has a page on its own website that tells customers where outages are occurring. They can also download Entergy's app for push notifications on storm repairs.
"Our crews and contractors will be ready to respond if needed, working tirelessly to restore power and provide support in the aftermath of any storm," Steven Benyard, vice president of reliability for Entergy in Louisiana, said in a prepared statement on Sunday.
Staging post
Entergy typically moves its own trucks and line repair technicians to staging posts when it becomes clear what path a storm will take. The utility also calls in sub-contractors from other utilities to help with repairs after severe storms.
"We're in the process of securing those contractors now," said Entergy Louisiana spokesperson Brandon Scardigli on Monday.
In southwest Louisiana, which current forecasts show as likely bearing the brunt of the storm, the Southwest Louisiana Electric Membership Corporation, a cooperative, has just over 100,000 customers, while the Lafayette Utilities System, run by the city, provides about 73,000 with power. Neither had spokespeople immediately available for comment.
The Central Louisiana Electric Company, or CLECO, whose customers are concentrated mostly on the northshore, in St. Tammany and neighboring parishes, said Monday that it had lined up 1,700 contractors to support its staff in repairing damage from Francine.
"Based on the current track of Tropical Storm Francine, we're working to increase our contractor resources," said Clint Robichaux, director of distribution operations and reliability, in a statement Monday.
"This includes line mechanics and vegetation specialists who are equipped to work on our transmission and distribution systems," he added.
Hardening spend
Entergy has proposed spending more than $2 billion to harden its infrastructure in Louisiana so that it can better withstand storms.
After the series of storms in 2020 and 2021, which included hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and Ida, the company said it sustained more damage than it did from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Hurricane Ida alone knocked out 30,000 distribution poles, as well as several key transmission lines to New Orleans. Katrina, by comparison, knocked out 17,000 distribution poles.
After going through the approval process, Entergy Louisiana formally began its upgrade program last month, spending $107 million to improve 148 miles of power lines in the Lake Charles area.
Entergy New Orleans hasn't yet received approved from the City Council, its regulator, on a $200 million infrastructure hardening program.
"Pending their approval, we stand ready to move on the first three years worth of projects," said Beau Tidwell, Entergy New Orleans spokesperson.