Power is back on in the French Quarter after an underline transformer caught fire late Saturday night, forcing Entergy to shut off power in the area and police to evacuate a number of businesses, including at least one hotel.
It happened at 10:36 p.m. last night near the corner of Conti and Bourbon Streets. The outage impacted the Vieux Carré from Rampart Street to Decatur Street and Iberville Street to Bienville Street.
Mayor Helena Moreno said because of the fire, officials evacuated the Royal Sonesta hotel.
The cause of that fire remains under investigation.
"Power has been restored,” Entergy New Orleans said in a statement. “Overnight, Entergy crews responded to an outage impacting approximately 900 customers in the French Quarter. The cause is under investigation, believed to be related to a fire beneath an underground vault.”
Entergy officials added that they faced another unexpected challenge during their restoration efforts, threats from a gunman.
“While responding to the outage, Entergy crews were menaced by an individual threatening to shoot our lineman with a gun— delaying resolution of the incident,” the statement said. “NOPD has been notified and is on the scene.”
Police have not said if they have identified a suspect.
