Power returns as Entergy calls in reinforcements

By Brian Reynolds (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Friday, September 5, 2008

NATCHEZ — While parts of Natchez are suffering from a lack of power, the majority of the city is back on line.

Of Entergy’s 20,000 customers in the Natchez area, 4,000 to 4,500 are still without power, but Entergy customer service manager Steven Caruthers is hoping that will be fixed by the weekend.

“We’re still working on getting hundreds of people on at a time,” Caruthers said. “The ball’s been rolling and we’re picking up steam.”

Thursday, Entergy’s big focus was on reconnecting the areas of downtown that were still without power, including Cathedral School.

“By the end of the day we’re going to have a large portion of Natchez back on,” he said. “That’s if luck stays with us.”

After that, there will be small pockets left without power, he said. There may even be some situations where one side of a street has electricity and another does not.

“(Today) and the weekend will be spent getting the smaller pockets back on,” he said.

This work has continued steadily since the brunt of the storm passed, despite the continued bad weather. The first lights came on downtown Tuesday night, while the rain was still falling. Also, Wednesday night’s storms did not cause any setbacks or additional damage.

One of the keys to the quick repair is the increased workforce. Normally, the Natchez branch of Entergy has 20 employees, Caruthers said. Now they have 450.

“My umbrella has opened up big,” he said. “I know of crews from as far away as Michigan that are here in town.”

And despite the nearly 500,000 people without electricity in Louisiana, those people will stay in Natchez until the job is done.

“We’re not losing our workforce until we get Natchez back up,” he said.

In rural Adams County, they have not had as much luck. Azalea Knight, public relations coordinater of Southwest Mississippi Electric Power Association said that 2,200 of their 5,750 customers are still without power.

“We are making some progress, but it’s really just beginning to look like we made progress because the weather just began to cooperate,” Knight said.

They also have increased their staff and have 152 extra personnel on hand.

And while Wednesday night’s storms were no problem for Entergy, some Southwest Mississippi EPA customers lost power for a second time.

“We had to start of (Thursday) morning,” Knight said.

But like Entergy, Knight expect to have all power restored by the weekend.