More than 600,000 Entergy customers are currently without power, 68,000 of them in East Baton Rouge Parish, and they may stay that way for a while.
Sheila Pounders, regional customer service manager at Entergy, spoke at a brief press conference Wednesday afternoon to address power outage concerns.
Pounders said Entergy employees are under a shelter in place order and are only venturing into the inclement weather to tend to extreme emergencies.
“At this point, safety trumps speed,” she said. “We’re using this time to sharpen our plan.”
Pounders said 23 states will send more than 10,000 utility workers to the Louisiana to help restore power when weather conditions improve.
East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden took to the podium to urge residents to continue to stay indoors as the weather gets worse.
Holden said the parish is currently under a flash flood warning and asked residents to “exercise extreme caution” during the next few hours. Officials are discussing the possibility of a curfew and the discussion’s outcome will be revealed later today, he said.
The National Weather Service has predicted the bad weather will continue until the early morning and the city is expected to see rain and wind for at least the next 12 hours, he said.
Holden said at least 75 streets in Baton Rouge are partially closed, including Gourrier Avenue at West Parker Boulevard and Perkins Road at Staring Lane.
A full list of road closures can be found at redstickready.com under “Emergency Information.”
William Daniel, Department of Public Works director, said the department’s 311 Call Center has received more than 1500 calls today and he encouraged residents to continue calling to report downed trees and power lines in the city.
“We’ve recorded over 90 trees down so far,” he said.
Daniel also said more than 22 traffic signals are out of service and urged residents to stay off the road until weather conditions improve.
Entergy customers can report power outages by calling the company’s hotline: 1-800-9OUTAGE.
 
 
 
—- Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]