Weeks after Ida, parts of Louisiana still dark
NEW ORLEANS — Three weeks have passed since Hurricane Ida knocked down electric wires, poles and transmission towers serving more than 1 million people in southeast Louisiana. As of Friday evening, there were still about 38,000 customers without power, and many people remained displaced from damaged homes.
As intensifying storms driven by climate change reveal the weakness of electric grids across the United States, severe power outages are becoming increasingly regular.
“It so quickly pivots from the disaster itself — the hurricane, the wildfire, the floods,” said Julie McNamara, an energy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “So much of the consequences of these extreme weather events are because of those long-lasting power outages.”
For many, getting the lights back on could still be more than a week away: Entergy, the state’s largest utility, estimates that power will be fully restored in the state by Sept. 29, a full month after Ida made landfall. Linemen are scattered across the coast replacing downed wires and poles, but in some areas hit by sustained winds as high as 150 mph, electrical systems will need to be completely rebuilt.
The challenges of weeks without power are wearing on residents. Kelly Walker, who lives in Luling, La., went almost three weeks with no electricity before the lights were finally restored Friday. Her mother’s small threebedroom house became a crowded home base to eight people, where a generator tempered the sweltering heat at a cost of often $80 per day in gasoline.
“It seems in the big picture things are coming together,” said Walker. “But it feels like the outskirts, little towns and communities, are getting left behind.”
Jobs, schools and daily routines remain on hold across the region. Workers on cherry pickers string new power lines as drivers wait their turn at dead traffic lights. On some residential streets, power lines hang so low that cars just barely scrape under them.
And with every passing day, the already immense task of rebuilding becomes more daunting as rain falls through holes in rooftops and mold spreads.