CALCASIEU PARISH, LA (KPLC) -
More than 40 percent of Louisiana homes don't have power tonight thanks to now Tropical Depression Isaac.
While the bulk of the outages are in Southeast Louisiana, many people in Southwest Louisiana were left in the dark, too.
Just before 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, a palm tree snapped right behind 7th Street, between Common and Hodges. It left around 700 people without power, just in this area. But power companies have been working all day long across Southwest Louisiana to get power restored.
"Because of the size of the storm, and safety being paramount at Entergy, restoration has been slow, until the wind speeds go below 30 mile per hour," said Entergy Spokesman Chip Arnould.
The wind slowed power restoration Wednesday night, but as of Thursday morning, crews from Beauregard Electric, CLECO, Jeff Davis Electric and Entergy managed to get to work restoring power to customers.
"Restoration starts with the generating stations and then the next part to be restored are the transmission system. Following the transmission system, it'll go down to the substation level," said Arnould. "Then critical facilities, such as hospitals, sewer lift stations, water stations, will be prioritized, followed by neighborhoods, and then individual customers."
Most of the companies restored power to their customers in the five-parish area, but a downed palm tree on Seventh Street in Lake Charles slowed down the process for Entergy. It fell across power lines, snapping two poles, just after 11 p.m., and Thursday night, around 700 customers were still in the dark.
"We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to safely and quickly restore power to you," said Arnould.
Some customers in Southwest Louisiana are still without power, but power companies hope to have all power restored no later than Friday afternoon.
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