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Entergy Texas continues to make great progress restoring power since Hurricane Laura hit the shores of Texas and Louisiana.  As of 4:00pm, Entergy Texas has 61,475 customers without power compared to the peak of 291,300 customers.  This reflects that 229,825 customers have been restored since the peak of the storm.

Entergy Texas has deployed approximately 7,000 workers in the impacted areas and is making repairs including broken poles, wire down, pole equipment and damage from fallen trees.  Entergy Texas employees and contractors continue to follow COVID-19 procedures to ensure the safety of our work force.

While crews continue to make repairs to our distribution system, restoring power to customers have been slowed because of the damage to our transmission system.  Our electric system is still in a very fragile state and we are taking steps to improve system conditions, but the damage to our transmission system is significant.

Due to instability of the system caused by loss of high voltage transmission lines as a result of this CAT4 hurricane, customers remaining without power in Beaumont will be restored August 31, Port Arthur, Nederland and Port Neches by August 31, Groves September 1 and the Orange area is estimated by September 4. However, given the extent of damage these times may change as our crews assess the damage and make progress restoring customers.

Beaumont and Surrounding Areas

As of 4:00 pm, there are 3,103 customers without power in the Beaumont area.  Approximately 900 additional workers have been brought to the area to assist with restoration in Beaumont, China, Bevil Oaks and Sour Lake.

Damage assessments are more than 95% complete and should be 100% complete by the end of the day. Crews have identified 82 poles down, 11 transformers blown, and more than 40,000 feet of wire that need replacement.

Servicemen continue working and making repairs in:

• South Beaumont – near Exxon Mobil, the Avenues, along M L King Jr Pkwy north of Lamar University;
• Central Beaumont – Liberty-Laurel corridor, downtown;
• North Beaumont – areas between Concord Rd and Magnolia Ave, near Concord and French Rd;
• West Beaumont – areas along Phelan Blvd and Calder Ave.

Due to instability of the system caused by loss of high voltage transmission lines as a result of this CAT4 hurricane, customers remaining without power in Beaumont will be restored Monday, August 31.

Orange and Surrounding Areas

As of 4:00pm, 33,517 customers in the Orange and surrounding areas are without power.

The Entergy transmission system was severely damaged by the storm.  That system provides power to several substations in the Orange area and has prevented the restoring of some customers in these areas. Workers are repairing lines and equipment in our distribution system while our transmission workers are making necessary repairs or rebuilding its infrastructure. Once the transmission power is restored and the substations are energized, many customers should receive power.

As of noon today, 90% of all areas has been assessed. There are 501 broken poles counted, 664 spans of wire down, 97 transformers need to be replaced, and 267 crossarms broken.

• McLewis: 65% of the area has been assessed. There are 154 broken poles, 221 spans of wire down, 41 transformers needing replacement, and 71 crossarms broken.
• Vidor: 100% of the area has been assessed. There are 58 broken poles, 123 spans of wire down, 7 transformers need to be replaced, and 26 crossarms broken.
• Bridge City: 100% of the area has been assessed. There are 87 broken poles, 126 spans of wire down, 23 transformers need to be replaced, and 48 crossarms broken.

Entergy Texas has 162 crews working the Orange and surrounding areas at the end of yesterday and today it’s been ramped up to 316 crews. Of the additional crews, 110 were evenly distributed throughout Orange and Bridge City areas. The following workers were assigned to the following areas:

• Vidor: 20 crews have been added to the southern area of Vidor (along Highway 105 from the Hampton substation to the Orangefield area).
• Orange: Extra crews are working in the Highway 87 North area and toward Mauriceville.
• Bridge City: More crews have been brought in to work the south side of Highway 87, the Cow Bayou area and up to Orangefield.
• A new staging site is located at the LCM High School.

Entergy Texas expects to restore most of its customers, who can safely take power by Friday, September 4.