Author: Imported Author 1980807

Baton Rouge / louisianaradionetwork.com

Thirty days after Hurricane Ida, the Louisiana Public Service Commission reports nearly eight thousand customers are without power as a result of the Category 4 storm. Entergy Louisiana VP of Distribution Operations John Hawkins said some of their customers are still not able to accept power because of damage to their homes.

“They’re reaching out to us and we’re getting to them as soon as possible. We know how essential electricity is and we want to make sure they have it when they need it so they can continue to rebuild on their lives,” said Hawkins.

Grand Isle and Port Fourchon are amongst the hardest-hit areas and Hawkins said for those coastal communities it is an entire rebuild versus a restoration.  He said crews are working 16-hour days in an effort to give them some normalcy as soon as possible.

“We’re continuing with those efforts; things are progressing pretty well. We set up some generation for some of the customers that are on the island to be able to support and we will continue until we are able to get every last customer restored,” said Hawkins.

Hawkins said while work in those hardest-hit areas will remain ongoing throughout the year, he believes customers will have service long before however they will continue to harden the grid.

Hawkins said part of the restoration includes replacing equipment with more robust gear to withstand hurricane-strength winds of up to 150 miles per hour. A month out from landfall, Hawkins said they wouldn’t have been able to have the lights back on for as many customers as they do without the assistance of out-of-state crews.

“Remember we had a team of more than 26,000 folks from across 41 states that came to support this restoration. And that support allowed us to be able to restore customers quicker,” said Hawkins.

30 days out from Ida most Entergy customers have power restored

Baton Rouge / louisianaradionetwork.com

The Louisiana Department of Education has launched the Reimagine School Systems program. Superintendent of Education Doctor Cade Brumley says they are making 35-million dollars available to school systems who come up with ideas that can boost students’ performance

“To think about bold, innovative ideas to not only help kids recover from the learning loss of Covid, but are in better positions as we move forward,” said Brumley.

Brumley says there’s no set amount for dividing up the grant money as school districts move forward with plans to create new educational opportunities.  The deadline to apply for the grant money is December 16^th.

“Based on applications that we receive, uh, we’ll consider each on. We don’t want to set a spending limit on any individual idea,” said Brumley.

Brumley says those chosen for the grant money will receive technical assistance in implementing their plan and financial resources to fund it.

“The best ideas will be funded, we’ll seed those ideas to successfully launch them so that every kid can be in a school that they deserve,” said Brumley.

Louisiana Department Of Education seeks new, bold ideas to boost students’ performance

Baton Rouge / louisianaradionetwork.com

Entergy Louisiana is seeking to add a $5 surcharge to customer’s bills to pay almost $2.1 billion in repair work following hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Zeta, and February’s winter storms.  Entergy Vice President of Regulatory and Public Affairs Mark Kleehammer said the average customer will pay the monthly surcharge for the next fifteen years.

“The ask that is on the table right now would be a combined ask for all customers. We’ll subsequently be dealing with Ida, will be the same thing,” said Kleehammer.

Entergy presented their surcharge proposal before a Joint Legislative Commerce Committee meeting at the capitol Monday. Entergy customers already pay a monthly surcharge for damages caused by hurricanes Gustav, Ike, and Isaac. Charges for Gustav are expected to roll off next year.

Kleehammer said they expect to ask for a similar surcharge for Ida in the future.

“To the extent that southwest Louisiana was hit very hard last year our entire customer base will be picking that up, including in the north where they had damages from Laura and the same thing will happen for southeast Louisiana from this year,” said Kleehammer.

Entergy customers paid monthly surcharges for Katrina and Rita for approximately ten years.

Thibodaux Representative Bryan Fontenot suggested the utility provider dedicate a portion of their $700 million annual profits to an escrow account to pay for catastrophic repairs. He also questioned Entergy representatives about their preventative maintenance of utility poles and equipment.

“I want to ensure that Entergy is repairing those items that have been derogated and then when they have a storm and then ask me to pay for it because they didn’t do their preventative maintenance work. I think that’s crucial for the payer,” said Fontenot.

Entergy submitted the most recent surcharge request for the 2020 hurricanes and this year’s winter storms to the Public Service Commission for approval that won’t be voted on for at least eight months.

Entergy requesting $5 monthly surcharge to pay for 2020 hurricane and recent winter storms repairs

LSU Researchers have determined a new way to forecast rough hurricane seasons in the Gulf of Mexico by looking at spring atmospheric temperatures. Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences assistant professor Paul Miller said while NOAA and Colorado State University both issue storm predictions their outlook pertains to all Atlantic storms not specifically those impacting the gulf.

“However, as we know living along the gulf coast certainly any storm in the gulf is almost guaranteed to make landfall somewhere and so we felt that there’s kind of this gap in those projections that we could help build for the Gulf of Mexico,” said Miller.

Miller said they researched weather data all the way back to 1980 and compared atmospheric temperatures from previous hurricanes.

“That’s about 20,000 feet above our heads, and what we found was the warmer those temperatures were over the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season that we normally experience more storms during that hurricane season,” said Miller.

Miller when they were able to identify the pattern of previous gulf atmospheric temperatures and the number of storms that made landfall in the Gulf.

“And now we’re able to use that to predict forward how many storms might occur during an upcoming season,” said Miller.

Other hurricane predictors use sea surface temperatures, but Miller said looking at atmospheric temperatures to predict hurricanes in the gulf appears to be more accurate for predicting gulf storms. Miller hopes in addition to NOAA and CSU that LSU will be added to the upcoming hurricane forecast.

LSU creates new model to predict hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico