Greenwell Springs, Louisiana - At the height of the storm an estimated 100,000 of our 113,500 meters were out. Currently 48% of all meters are back in service, bringing overall outages under 60,000.
“While we certainly have a long way to go, DEMCO has made significant progress toward restoring our members to service following Hurricane Ida,” says Randy Pierce, CEO and general manager. “We have very significant damage to our system. 60 broken and 100 stripped transmission poles, and 400 broken distribution poles (mainline infrastructure). We continue to assess single phase damage. We also have extensive line down throughout our service area.”
Hundreds of crews are arriving daily, some from cooperatives in Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Florida, as well as contractors from throughout the nation. The addition of these crews and many more in the coming days will expedite this restoration.
Members will continue to see significant progress over the next 48 hours, but for others in more remote areas or where damage is much more significant, restoration could take two to four weeks.
“All substations are ready to receive power, many are using power switching technology until metering points are restored, and as soon as transmission damage is repaired and it’s safe to do so, we are energizing lines,” says Mark Phillips, Director of Operations. Four substations - East Baton Rouge, West Feliciana, Ascension and Livingston - are powered up using switching technology until critical metering points are restored.
Parish updates are provided below:
East Baton Rouge –35580 meters, 9480 out (26.6%) Waiting for power at the metering points at Flannery Rd., Terrell Rd Power is restored to Thompson Creek, Zachary, Dyer Road to Indian Mound, Flannery Rd. to Greenwell Springs and Harrell’s Ferry Most members in EBR will have power restored this week, but an estimated 1000 members are in hard-to-access areas and those outages will take longer to restore since off-road equipment is required
Ascension – 15064 meters, 9281 out (61.6%) The Airline substation has power and DEMCO is energizing areas in Gonzales, Prairieville, St. Amant and Galvez Media Contact Anne Hawes, 225-954-1112 AnneH@DEMCO.org Media Availability David Latona, 225-226-8149 DavidL@DEMCO.org French settlement substation is waiting for power at the metering point. Due to damage to infrastructure, outages in this area are estimated at one to two weeks.
Livingston – 45275 meters, 32500 out (71.8%) Severe damage to infrastructure in this parish, such as poles and lines down and stripped. Good progress in the Juban, Watson and Walker areas Live Oak to Watson is getting addressed today Denbury to LIGO estimated time of restoration is 9/5-9/7
East Feliciana – 6054 meters, 2796 out (46%) Working in the Clinton area today to restore power to Olive Branch and Pride
West Feliciana – 4513 meters, 31 out (5%) Working on restoration in Tunica, Bains and Elm Park areas Remaining outages have accessibility challenges and will take longer
Tangipahoa – 628 meters, 626 out (99.7%) Outages in this area will take three to four weeks to restore
St. Helena – 5227 meters, 5144 out (98.4%) Working in the Grangeville and Darlington areas beginning tomorrow, and hoping to restore power by 9/5. Some Greensburg and Pine Grove areas will be out for three to four weeks. Damage is severe in this area.
“DEMCO continues to work diligently and safely to restore power to all members,” says Pierce. “We ask for your patience as we walk through this process with you and pray for the safety of all of our lineworkers and emergency services personnel.”
