By Tuesday morning, Entergy had restored power to 631,000 of 1.1 million customers who lost service after Katrina and its power demand load was at 77 percent of normal, Leo Denault, Entergy's chief financial officer, said during a conference call with analysts.
Mississippi Power Co., which lost electric service to all of its 195,000 customers during Katrina, said power had been restored to more than half by Tuesday and the rest would have power back by Sunday. Alabama Power Co. said service had been restored to 99 percent of customers affected by the hurricane.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
BOSTON — Massachusetts suspended plans to house some 2,500 Hurricane Katrina refugees on Cape Cod last night after federal officials told the governor and the leaders of other states that many of the survivors want to remain closer to home.
"Many evacuees prefer to remain in the region as they resolve issues concerning the status of property, employment and the safety of loved ones," said an urgent announcement to the states by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The notice did not explain how long the states should remain on standby, but Gov. Mitt Romney pledged to remain ready if Massachusetts is needed to help with the relief effort.
Earlier in the day, state lawmakers and Romney quickly rushed a bill through that would allocate $25 million, to provide housing, food, clothing and medical treatment for the evacuees for about 60 days.
State officials expected that many of the evacuees, who were to be sheltered for several weeks at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, may ultimately decide to remain in Massachusetts.
But Romney said the long-term goal is to help the displaced families to become self-sufficient in the community as quickly as possible.
State Rep. Daniel E. Bosley, D-North Adams, said one critical issue will be putting the children of evacuee families back into school.
He said his wife's cousin lives in Mississippi north of the Gulf Coast area, and the local school system was shut down for two weeks so that it could integrate students from the coastal area damaged by the hurricane.
"We need to put the kids into school and we need to find the parents jobs. We need to think longer term, not just short term solutions," Bosley said. "We'll have to take on these challenges one at a time."