As Hurricane Francine approaches Louisiana’s coast, New Orleans is grappling with the storm and significant concerns about its power grid. Scheduled to land as a Category 1 hurricane, Francine has heightened anxiety in a city already dealing with frequent power outages.
Recent outages just a day before the storm’s expected arrival have intensified scrutiny on Entergy’s power reliability. New Orleans Councilman Joe Giarusso, who has played a vital role in the city’s energy policies, voiced concerns about communication. “We discussed with Entergy yesterday about the need to communicate with residents about what is happening and why it happened,” Giarusso noted. Despite these discussions, the city remains apprehensive as Francine nears.
Entergy has mobilized a substantial response, deploying 1,600 employees and contractors to Louisiana and requesting an additional 3,400 resources for post-storm recovery. Steven Benyard, Entergy’s Vice President of Reliability, assured that the company is taking Francine seriously. “As with any storm that threatens our service territory, we’re taking Tropical Storm Francine very seriously and have activated our methodical storm response process,” Benyard stated.
Residents are advised to stay informed through Entergy’s social media, app, and text alerts for updates on outages and restoration times. This comes amid a troubling rise in outages this year, affecting thousands of customers outside significant storms.
Public officials and residents have been examining the power grid’s reliability with heightened scrutiny. Earlier this year, the New Orleans City Council criticized Entergy New Orleans for service inconsistencies and is considering stricter regulations.
With the storm approaching and power concerns mounting, hashtags like #HurricaneFrancine, #NewOrleansOutages, and #EntergyScrutiny are trending, reflecting the city’s urgent focus on storm preparedness and power grid reliability.
