Entergy Louisiana estimates the cost to restore power following Hurricane Laura is $1.4 billion. CEO Phillip May says 1,800 transmission towers were damaged or destroyed and the number of distribution poles lost is only second to 2005's Hurricane Rita.
“It is an unprecedented amount of damage that we’ve seen here, and we put together an unprecedented response to that in terms of people and materials and so forth that came in to help restore after the storm,” said May.
May says Laura was not only the strongest storm to hit the state in 160 years, but its path of damage spread from the southwest all the way to northeast Louisiana.
“So basically, from Cameron Parish to East Carroll Parish, we had a Category 2 and 1 storm in north and central Louisiana. So, it also inflicted damage upon the system there,” said May.
May says the company is exploring avenues to minimize as much as possible passing on recovery costs to Entergy customers.
“We’re looking to see whether or not we can get federal assistance. Any dollar that we get from the federal government will allow us to reduce what we get from our customers,” said May.
For a ten year period after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Entergy customers had a surcharge on their bill to pay for those restoration costs.