Could be Oct. before La. gets all juice back
Residents of Louisiana could be sitting in the dark — and baking in the heat — for weeks in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.
Full restoration of electricity to parts of the battered Bayou State may not come until the end of the month, a power company bigwig warned Saturday.
Ida, which roared ashore last Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, damaged or destroyed a “staggering” 22,000 power poles, more than Hurricanes Katrina, Zeta and Delta combined, Entergy President and CEO Phillip May said. More than 5,200 transformers failed and nearly 26,000 spans of wire were down.
“The level of devastation makes it quite difficult or near impossible to get in and fully assess some places,” May said of five southeastern Louisiana parishes facing the longest delays. He estimated full power restoration by Sept. 29 or even longer for some customers, although May said that was a “no later than” date with the hope of earlier restoration.
By Saturday, power had been restored to about 282,000 customers from the peak of 902,000 who lost power after Ida. About a quarter of New Orleans residents have had power restored, including all the Big Easy’s hospitals, said Deanna Rodriguez, Entergy New Orleans president and CEO.
Sizzling temperatures and no air conditioning has made some tempers boil. A dispute over cutting the line in a gas station turned deadly, authorities said. Walter Sippio, 20, was charged Saturday with murder for the slaying of Dwayne Nosacka, 36.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said Sippio allegedly cut through the gas line ahead of Nosacka on Friday afternoon. Sippio’s girlfriend, who was in his car, tried to deescalate the situation but couldn’t. The accused claims the shooting was self-defense, but Lopinto said that doesn’t jibe with witness statements or other evidence from the scene.
Lopinto said it was the second time Friday his office received a report of a gun being pulled at a gas station. He said tempers are flaring over gas shortages and other circumstances arising from Ida’s aftermath.
“Unbelievable that people can’t act like adults in this situation,” he said.
The problems aren’t limited to the land. The Coast Guard said Saturday that cleanup crews are responding to a sizable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida.
But there was at least one piece of good news: The lower Mississippi River was reopened to all vessel traffic in New Orleans and key ports throughout southeast Louisiana.
In a news release, Coast Guard Capt. Will Watson said the successful removal of several power lines that had blocked the waterway due to a downed transmission tower after the storm and a survey of the ship channel allowed the river to be “deemed open for all marine traffic.”
The Northeast is also cleaning up after Ida’s remnants brought deadly levels of rain on Wednesday. New Jersey saw the highest death toll of any state, with 27 fatalities.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy toured a flood-wrecked apartment complex on the banks of the Raritan River Saturday in Piscataway, and warned residents about the potentially harmful contaminants left behind.
“You have to assume the worst,” he said. “If you’re in there, you want to have windows and doors open.”
And in Connecticut, funeral arrangements were set for State Police Sgt. Brian Mohl, who was swept away with his vehicle while on duty early Thursday in Woodbury. A wake for Mohl is scheduled for Sept. 8 in Hartford, where the funeral will be held on Sept. 9.