Entergy Readies for Isaac

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy is working to amass a workforce of more than 4,000 company and contract workers to help restore power as it prepares for the impacts of Hurricane Isaac and the probability that the storm could affect all or significant parts of Entergy's service territory. Some contract crews have already arrived. Entergy has core teams stationed around south Louisiana to respond to power outages and emergencies as long as it is safe to do so.

Hurricane Isaac is capable of causing widespread and extended power outages. Based on the forecast, severe weather conditions are expected to continue at least through late Wednesday as the storm tracks across Louisiana and Mississippi. Isaac is a slow-moving storm that could cause tropical force winds for 30 hours or more and significant rainfall.

After the storm passes, Entergy crews and contractors are prepared to work long hours, restoring service to customers as safely and as quickly as possible. At present, outages are expected to last several days. To ensure the safety of our people, bucket trucks are deployed when winds are below 30 mph at the location where the damage is sustained. Updated customer outage information can be found on entergy.com.

Entergy reminds customers to stay away from downed power lines and to call 1-800-9OUTAGE toll free to report outages.

"It's a terrible inconvenience to be without electricity, and we will be doing everything in our power to get it back on safely," said Greg Grillo, Entergy's Incident Storm Commander. "We have more people on the phones, more crews in the field and will provide frequent status reports to your local news media to make sure you are well informed. We have the best-trained storm restoration teams in the country. The company has a well-rehearsed plan of action, and our employees and those from around the region are being mobilized to assist in storm restoration."

Entergy follows a restoration plan that concentrates on getting service restored to essential customers first, like hospitals, police, fire, communications, water, sanitary services and transportation providers. Then, Entergy crews turn their attention to making repairs to electrical facilities that will return service to the largest number of customers in the shortest period of time,. Finally, the next largest number and so on until power is restored to everyone.

Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.

SOURCE Entergy Corporation