Many still waiting for power

• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Sep 8, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Entergy customers in the  Baton Rouge area on the short-term repair list after Hurricane Gustav should generally have power restored by Thursday, a company official said Sunday.

“We are now looking at sometime in the next four days to get your power back,” Jeff Holeman, regional customer service manager for Entergy Gulf States, said of customers on the utility’s seven-day or less restoration map issued last week.

Holeman said that, as of 11 a.m. Sunday, power had been restored to about 89,000 of  161,000 Entergy customers in East Baton Rouge Parish left in the dark by Gustav, which struck one week ago. That is 55 percent of the total.

Holeman said power has been resumed for 66 percent of Entergy customers statewide.

Meanwhile, power has been restored to 23,484 of DEMCO’s roughly 31,000 customers in East Baton Rouge Parish, or 76 percent.

The Sunday evening figures were provided by Brent Bradley, manager of business and member services for DEMCO, which serves seven parishes.

DEMCO  also reported that:

• 42 percent of its nearly 12,000 customers in Ascension Parish are without power.
• 26 percent of about 36,000 customers in Livingston Parish are without power.

The latest developments mean that about 112,500 out of 192,000 Entergy Gulf States customers and DEMCO customers in East Baton Rouge Parish have had power restored, or 59  percent.

Power restoration remains the most popular topic of conversation in Baton Rouge, including churches where services without electricity were common on Sunday.

Entergy released maps on Friday that spelled out general timetables for power restoration in Baton Rouge.

Sections in white on the maps were described as expected to regain power within seven days, which would be Friday.

Those in orange designated  parts of the Baton Rouge area that suffered severe utility damages, with restoration listed as taking 14 days to 21 days.

Holeman said that, shortly before noon on Sunday, Entergy had added 29,000 customers in East Baton Rouge Parish to the tally of those with power since Saturday. That leaves about 73,000 customers in the parish in the dark, and without  air-conditioning.

Holeman said he could not say what percentage of those still waiting for service are facing long-term outages.