Utilities on the Frontline Following Hurricane Ida

16 years after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana and Mississippi are grappling with the devastation of another historic tropical storm, which struck Sunday evening.

With maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, Ida’s impact can be seen across Twitter: collapsed buildings, streets overwhelmed by floodwaters, and smashed transmission towers.

Over 1 million people have lost power.

Significantly, Entergy lost all eight transmission lines that fed New Orleans - the entire city went dark and may not be fully restored for up to six weeks.

A county official described the grid damage as “catastrophic.”

As extreme weather grows in severity and frequency, Hurricane Ida’s impact underscores the unprecedented logistical and technological challenges electric utilities face in ensuring reliability and safety during hurricane season.

Utility workers deserve recognition - alongside other emergency frontline responders - for the risks they face and sacrifices they make while securing and rebuilding their communities.

Hurricane Ida’s impact on the grid

A category 4 hurricane, Ida is one of the strongest storms to make landfall in U.S. history.?

The aftermath: uprooted trees, downed power lines, blocked roads, and snapped utility poles.

Monday morning, Entergy reported 216 substations, 207 transmission lines, and more than 2,000 miles of transmission lines out of service, causing nearly 900,000 outages.

Of note, a transmission tower that survived Hurricane Katrina collapsed into a river because of high winds, shutting down water traffic.

This grid damage poses a direct threat to customers.

Besides the obvious electrical hazard of downed lines, blocked roads prevent emergency vehicles from reaching people in need. And outages are a significant risk for customers who rely on life support equipment.

Not to mention critical facilities, like the hospitals already straining under a surge of COVID cases. Ida damaged four Louisiana hospitals, and 39 medical facilities turned to generators for power.

And with temperatures in the high 80s, customers are left without air conditioning or refrigeration, risking heat stroke and spoiled food and medicine.

Utility workers are critical to the health and safety of their communities.

However, as utility professionals understand, storm response isn’t a simple undertaking.

The logistical and technological challenges in storm response

Storm response is a complex effort with many moving parts.

Entergy commands a force of 11,450 but will coordinate approximately 20,000, once mutual aid teams arrive from neighboring states.

Edison Electric Institute identified resources from at least 30 states in this effort.

The logistics are mind-boggling: transportation, onboarding, staging, field communication, work and asset management, housing and food, etc.

A utility strategically stages trucks, fuel, equipment, food, utility poles, replacement parts, and advanced tech (drones, airboats, helicopters, etc.), among other resources.

Beyond this, Entergy must communicate clearly with customers, compile damage and outage reports, and collaborate with municipal, county, state, and federal stakeholders.

And in the field, workers start at first light and average 16-hour days. As first responders on a scene, they navigate electrical hazards, flooding, and debris, while risking fatigue, burnout, heat exhaustion, and COVID exposure.

A utility like Entergy prioritizes worker safety while also working as quickly as possible to clear roads and restore power to protect customers.

The stakes are high, and a utility’s responsibility to its community will only grow more significant in a changing climate.

Conclusion: resilience in the face of extreme weather?

A recent study confirmed tropical storms are growing more severe and intense due to climate change.

Last year, the fifth warmest year on record, 12 storms made landfall, breaking a record set in 1916 - the most active North Atlantic hurricane season on record. Seven of these storms cost at least a billion dollars each in damages, for a combined total of $40.1 billion.

This year, NOAA predicts another above-normal season: 15-21 storms and 7-10 hurricanes.

Like the recent pandemic, this extreme weather is unprecedented, but unlike COVID, the worst is still ahead of us.

An encouraging sight last year was the support shown to healthcare workers on the frontlines of the pandemic: handmade signs, cheers, cars honking. Solidarity between public servants and a community. Light amid tragic circumstances.

Because of climate change, utilities will be front-and-center in more and more natural disasters, scrambling to restore the lifeblood of a community.

The stress is intense, and utility workers - like those in Louisiana today - deserve recognition for tackling unprecedented challenges.

At this time, the extent of the damage and repairs is still being assessed. Estimated restoration times can’t be issued until this crucial step is completed.

But as we learn more, I hope the recovery will be quick and the field workers and citizens - who have persevered through so many storms - remain safe.