Posted on 08/31/2021 2:07:51 PM PDT by blam
Update (1302ET): Moments ago, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards spoke with reporters at a press conference. He said following Hurricane Ida, it may take upwards of 30 days to restore power to parts of the state. He said he wasn’t “satisfied” with the timeline to restore power, adding that the situation is very dangerous, and requested that those who evacuated don’t return home.
Here’s part of the governor’s press conference where he also went on to say that “many of the life-supporting infrastructure elements are not operating right now.”
“If you have already evacuated, do not return here or elsewhere in Southeast Louisiana until the Office of Emergency Preparedness tells you it is ready to receive you,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards says. “So let’s get you where you can be safe and somewhat comfortable.” pic.twitter.com/u095ocpLNU
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 31, 2021
As of 1248 ET, PowerOutage.US reports a little more than one million customers are without power across the state’s coastal plain.
We noted earlier that 207 transmission lines spanning more than 2,000 miles were knocked out when Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, with 150 mph winds, on Sunday.
How long until looting begins?
* * *
More than a million customers across Lousiana are without power on Tuesday morning. Some reports indicate it could take weeks for the lights to come back on as thousands of miles of transmission lines were damaged after Hurricane Ida rolled through on Sunday.
The Category 4 hurricane raises fresh questions about how well New Orleans and other coastal areas across Lousiana are prepared for natural disasters. As of 0630 ET, PowerOutage.US reports a little more than one million customers are without power across the state’s coastal plain.
Energy provider Entergy Corp has been surveying the damage since Monday and has found 207 transmission lines spanning more than 2,000 miles have been knocked out by the storm, according to WSJ.
Rod West, Entergy’s group president of utility operations, said drones, helicopters, and land-based vehicles are surveying the damage and estimate it could take at least three weeks to restore power.
The crumpled Entergy transmission tower by River Road in Bridge City. Local volunteer firemen said it collapsed iver a two-hour period Sunday night as #HurricaneIda battered the area. /1 @NOLAnews #nola #energytwitter pic.twitter.com/IqBXVtvjuZ
— Anthony McAuley (@AnthonyMcAuley2) August 30, 2021
“The hard part is that the geography is a rather wide swath,” West said. “That three weeks is not going to apply to everybody the same way.” He added some transmission towers need to be replaced entirely due to “significant wind” damage.
West said the damage to the transmission system is more severe than Hurricane Katrina because Ida made landfall at 150 mph.
Besides transmission lines, some of Entergy’s powerplants have sustained damage. West said the damage at some plants would not hinder energy production. One of their nuclear power plants 25 miles west of New Orleans on the Mississippi River was shuttered ahead of the storm.
West said they’d rebuilt their transmission system over the years to withstand speeds of 150 miles an hour. Still, it appears some of those high-voltage cables that carry electricity from power plants to substations that connect to lower-voltage distribution lines, were no match for Ida.
It could take weeks for Entergy and other power companies to restore energy in the state.
Customers have been panic searching Generac generators and generators since the hurricane made landfall.
They did move a lot of infrastructure underground in the city—but the major transmission lines go on for miles and miles in every direction including outside the city limits, and obviously those remained above-ground.
If you live in a city 50 gallons of gas and a generator will just make you a target for predators.
The best preparation is country living—there is no safe way to plan for an urban disaster.
Bingo. 30 days to reconstruct a massive power grid sounds like a miracle to me. Nothing peeves me more than some technically illiterate pantywaist gas bag whining that the real men and women who put the world back together just aren’t serving him fast enough.
One of the reasons I live in the sticks.
My family didn’t.
Agreed—I am thinking about tropical storms and hurricanes that knocked out power lines here in New England over past decades.
We did not have transmission lines knocked over—and it still took a couple of weeks for more power to be restored after a major storm.
I would be impressed if they just replaced the major transmission lines in thirty days—and then it would probably take a few weeks after that to work their way through the rest of the system.
My armchair estimate—six week range to get 90% of customers back on line...
“does LA not make any of it’s own power?”
I think you’d probably have to be generating power in your own backyard to escape this mess.
And last night on the weather channel they were bemoaning the fact....wait for it....
there
was
no
air conditioning!
*****
And the WC is about as pro "climate change" as you're gonna get.
searching Generac generators and generators since the hurricane made landfall
= = =
Get in a 4WD.
Drive around.
You will find a Generac laying around, maybe a little wet or muddy.
Believe it or not, I was on a call regarding climate change due to a different reason, but the major talking point all the panelists noted it impacted "people of color". I so wanted to ask if they would define "people of color" as we're all a color.
Or steal a Prius.
There was a post here on FR showing how you can wire the battery to an inverter and make lots of juice.
Mr Steel
I admire your logic.
Too bad the dem’s don’t get it.
Except you didn't have 150 mph winds up there.
I was a shipboard electrician in the Navy. Electricity is incredibly dangerous. And the power in the transmission lines is not your 115VAC house voltage either. The slightest error on these power lines and people are dead.
Let’s see the Guv’ner rush the job himself. I’d pay to see it.
Every human culture develops meaningless tropes that are part of a self-reinforcing justification for the power of the elites.
“Helping people of color” is one of those.
“Climate change” is another.
They cannot stand up to scrutiny, they are religious icons.
These days we also have the “Woke Pantheon”.
Homo Sapiens really hasn’t changed a lot since we crawled out of the caves and learned to make mouth noises.
Once the pack leaders learned how to lie, it was game over.
Correct—that is why the transmission lines remained intact.
They don’t refer to it as the “Big Easy” for nothi;g.
True, we have trees that break with tons of ice stuck to them that bring down all of the power lines. In one of the larger ice storms of the last 20 years wires were on the ground all over southern NH, with broken poles very common.
We had all hands on deck to cut trees, linemen from all over here to help, and remarkably the power was back in a week or two.
Re-building some of the high voltage infrastructure in Louisiana is a bigger project. I am sure resources are heading to the state from all over to help out.
agreed, but 2000miles is a fair piece
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