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Power returns as Entergy calls in reinforcements
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.
Comments
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 5:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We still are without lights!!! People are about to run out of patients....
Wonder how much the bill will go up now due to this? Entergy will say we didn't even go up. That's what they said during Katrinia that was a lie......Ask anyone who lived in the Jackson area. People were going around stealing meters when there lights were turned off. For a 4 person family lights were running about 550 to 600 dollars.
It is costing to run a generator.
Posted by oldschool (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 6:53 a.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by boredwithstupidity (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 7:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We got power back yesterday afternoon. But let me say this, Entergy has the WORST public announcements around! They give you NO information at all on how things are progressing. We're supposed to just sit and wait (patiently!). Telling people what progress has been made goes miles towards public relations. And as I was sitting in the dark, the LAST thing I wanted to keep hearing was how the local restaurants had power!!!! If Entergy made more effort in powering homes we wouldn't NEED a restaurant for food. We could easily cook and eat at home. And did I really care if Bowie's had power?!? NO!
I can understand businesses needing their power too. But why not make it a requirement of businesses to have their own back up power? From listening to the radio no gas station in Natchez has a generator..... Real smart! With the mentality of "businesses first" Entergy destroys any of their credibility with me.
We're going to be looking into getting a natural gas generator....
Posted by GopherBaroque (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 9:54 a.m. (Suggest removal)
By the way, "patients" is something a hospital might run out of. "Patience" is what a person might run out of.
Posted by GopherBaroque (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 9:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hooray we have the power. Hooray my mom has the power. Power to the people.
Posted by rattlesnake (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 3:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank God I finally got my power back on about 15 minutes ago.I am on EPA.
Posted by boredwithstupidity (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 5:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Had me going Gopher, I finally checked the spelling....
Patiently: With patience; in a patient manner
"he patiently played with the child"
Posted by oldshool (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 6:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am glad my lights finally on,its not fun drinking in the dark and my beers couldn't stay cold.I could have sworn I seen Gustav in my back yard or maybe I was seeing something
Posted by saywhat (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 8:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am still waiting for my power to be restored. I finally just threw the breaker and went to Texas. I just wonder if having no electricity is an acceptable excuse for missing school?
Posted by fire39212 (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 10:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
we still out of lights......I bet you one thing our light bill better be lower..We have been out of lights since monday morning...
Posted by oldschool (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 10:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Like I said they told me it will be Sept 29th when I will be restored power. Why were they not prepared for the storm like they stated? ENERGY is FULL OF IT! They should not be able to tell you to jump and we have to ask how high. I will be out of electricity for a whole month now you tell what is wrong with this picture? AND they claim they were prepared. and today I was told there was no certified person here, to do a transformer cause they were working with a skelton crew cause everybody has left to go to North Carolina and Baton Rouge. Boy do I have them now!! It has been one lie after another.
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