Power restored in French Quarter three days after Ida’s landfall

The lights are slowly coming back on in New Orleans, though the city’s main energy provider said “full restoration will take time.”

Power was restored to some of the French Quarter on Wednesday, three days after Hurricane Ida took out all the power in the city.

Around 11,500 customers regained power as of Wednesday morning, yet more than a million were still without electricity later that day, NOLA.com reported. 

Power returns to parts of the French Quarter 3 days after #hurricanida @NOLAnews pic.twitter.com/8ffYyEzuuf

— Sophia Germer (@SophiaGermer) September 2, 2021

According to the Entergy, the city’s main energy provider, around 950,000 customers were affected by the power outages, the second largest number to be affected by a disaster in the city, just behind Hurricane Katrina, which affected 1.1 million customers.

“Early Wednesday morning, Entergy crews turned power on for some customers in Eastern New Orleans with generation supplied by the New Orleans Power Station,” Entergy said in an update on Wednesday. “While initial service can be provided to some customers, full restoration will take time given the significant damage across the region. Customers are urged to adhere to the guidance of their local officials on when to return to the area.”

Entergy said on Wednesday that it has restored power to approximately 107,000 customers in its Louisiana and Mississippi service areas.

Let there be light! Power back on throughout the French Quarter. Photo of North Rampart at Ursuline from Ian Kramar ⁦@WWLTV⁩ pic.twitter.com/oQ5c5fQtV8

— David Hammer (@davidhammerWWL) September 2, 2021

Another Louisiana energy company, DEMCO, said on Wednesday that fully restoring power to affected households could potentially be a “weeks-long process.”

“Though we would love nothing more than to restore power to all members at this time, without repairs to transmission and transformer poles, that isn’t possible,” DEMCO wrote on social media. “Also until damaged infrastructure is repaired, we cannot begin to replace distribution poles and lines and estimated times of restoration are not possible.”