ENTERGY -- Operation: Storm Ready

The 2018 hurricane season begins June 1 and before it begins, we want our customers
to know that while we are hoping for the best, we are prepared for the worst.

• Safety is a core value at Entergy and remains top priority for our workers and customers.
• In the first three days following a storm, we work on:
- Assessing damage to deploy the right number of personnel with the right material.
- Restoring minimally damaged power plants and large transmission lines.
- Repairing substations and distribution lines that serve critical customers, like hospitals, police, water, drainage and communication networks.
• As the restoration continues, we work on: 
- Restoring areas with large numbers of customer outages, including businesses and neighborhoods.
- Restoring individual services, often the most time-consuming.
• Throughout, we supply the logistical needs of the restoration workforce, like food and shelter, for the duration.
Power plants, the primary sources of power production, are restored.
Large transmission lines are repaired and restored, delivering power to cities, towns and major industrial facilities.
Substations are brought online, and power is restored to emergency services, life-support facilities, police and communications networks.
Power is restored to areas with the largest numbers of customers, including businesses and neighborhoods.
Bucket trucks are safe to use when winds fall below 30 mph.
Individual services, often the most time-consuming repairs, are restored.
Year-Round Planning
• We plan restoration reports months before the first sign of foul weather.
• We follow a detailed, rehearsed plan that has worked well for us.
• We monitor weather threats 24/7, 365 days a year.
• We prioritize critical sites with local officials before the storm.
• We conduct annual storm exercises and review lessons learned following every event.
Restoration Time
• Weather forecasts, models and knowledge help us predict an estimated number and duration of outages.
• We strive to give an estimate of how long it will take to restore a majority of our customers 48-72 hours before landfall.
• Restoration estimates are revised as more concrete information about the storm becomes available.

 

Terrebonne Moves Forward with Flood, Storm Protection

Terrebonne Parish President Gordy Dove said the parish is fiscally strong thanks to his staff and support from groups like the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District.

During his Fiscal State of Terrebonne Parish speech Tuesday to members of the South Central Industrial Association, Dove said the parish was able to end 2017 with a $9 million fund balance, recovering from a “spiraling economy.”

After implementing 23 percent cuts in each department last year, “the parish is fiscally strong,” Dove said.

In April, sales tax revenues increased by 4.26 percent, he said.

Since taking office in 2016, Dove’s administration has worked on a number of capital improvement projects, specifically concerning drainage and storm protection.

In the past 11 years, the parish has received over $200 million from the state for various projects.

“We build the Morganza system. Now we have to pump it out,” Dove said.

The pending Chacahoula-Gibson pump station will be the first built outside of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf Levee system.

“It’s a huge undertaking, and a job well done by my staff,” Dove said.

The parish is also working to install three permanent generators at the Houma Power Plant at a cost of $850,000.

Other ongoing projects include the Falgout Canal rehabilitation and floodgate, the Hollywood Road extension project, the Mayfield Bridge replacement, the Point-aux-Chenes floodgate and the Houma Canal lock system, Dove said.

The parish is using drones to map the levee system and create an app for emergency operations personnel to monitor the closure of sluice gates during storms. Sluice gates are used in smaller drainage canals to control the flow of water.

“There’s no system in Terrebonne for what to shut off,” Dove said about the gates. “We’re working to solve that problem.”

One of the problem areas lies along Valhi Boulevard, which is part of the Chacahoula Basin, he said. When water rises in that area, it can flood nearby neighborhoods.

Other major projects include the Petit Caillou lock in Chauvin, costing about $9 million. The U.S. Corps of Engineers has issued preliminary permits, and the project is expected to go out for bid in June, Dove said.

The Petit Caillou drainage project will deepen the conveyance channel and add a pump station in Chauvin.

The parish is also continuing work with the state’s Coastal Restoration Protection Agency to improve the barrier island system from Racoon Island to Belle Pass.

“I don’t think a lot of us realize what we have in Gordon Dove,” said Tony Alford, president of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District board. “We need six more years to get this stuff done.”