Two transmission lines feeding Entergy’s Pontchartrain and U-city substations were down during the storm.
KENNER, Louisiana — Neighbors on Daniel Street in Kenner’s Rivertown spent the morning digging out of a dense cluster of overnight thunderstorms.
Tiffany Ritts woke up to fallen trees, tree limbs and power lines.
“I was in the living room and around 11:30 a.m., you could hear the wind starting to sound, the rain was getting heavier, and the lights were starting to flash,” Ritts said. “Thank God we have a generator and then you can hear all the debris flying.”
Phil Adams watched the wind bring down the power pole in front of the house.
“We noticed that the pole that was there had been snapped, and the only thing that was keeping him from going down the street was that he had been caught by the AT&T line that ran through it,” Adams said.
There were major power outages in Kenner and the western half of Jefferson Parish, and we now know why.
Michelle Borg, Entergy’s vice president of customer service, told us that two transmission lines feeding Entergy’s Pontchartrain and U-city substations were tripped offline during the storm.
“We were very quick, once we were able to deploy resources, once the storm passed, to implement some shifts to redirect power to bring power from other sources into the infrastructure to serve homes and businesses in the area.
Kirk Bollinger praised Entergy crews for responding quickly.
Part of his backyard cover ended up tangled with power lines across the street.
Despite the damage and power outages, things could have been much worse, he said.
“Just some vinyl and aluminum fencing that was blown down and some tree branches, a little bit of damage to cars here and there, but other than that everyone is safe,” Bollinger said. “This is the most important part.”
With more severe weather forecast – Entergy is bracing for another rough night.
“We realize the forecast is not favorable for us or the communities we serve, and if we encounter this weather, we will be prepared for it,” Borg said. “For us, it’s going to be number three. We had some pretty significant weather movement across the western part of the state on Monday night and we were really in mop-up mode so when that second hit was dealt to us. If number three is dealt with, we’ll be prepared for that. We’re monitoring the weather continuously.”
There were winds of more than 80 mph overnight in south Kenner.
Neighbors hope that if bad weather strikes again, Mother Nature will be kinder and spare them further damage.
“It brings back a lot of emotions because here we go again,” Ritts said. “No two storms are the same. You never know what’s going to happen.”
“It was recycling day,” Adams said. “I’m pretty sure all my recycling is in the West Bank now.”
According to Entergy, more than 100,000 customers were without power across Louisiana during the peak of the outages Friday morning, and about 70 percent of customers were back on by mid-afternoon.
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