I know that those of you still without power and those of you who endured the sweltering heat for many days are rightfully upset with how long it has taken Entergy Louisiana to restore power to our residents and businesses. I want you to know that while progress is being made, I will not rest until every citizen and business in Jefferson Parish has their power back. I have called for an investigation by the Louisiana Public Service Commission into the unacceptable length of time it is taking to get our parish back up and running again. I have met daily with Entergy’s management and will continue to do so. This is about more than mere comfort. Entergy’s inability to rapidly restore power has affected the health of our elderly, businesses economic viability, our infrastructure and the ability of our parish to get back on our feet. If not for Entergy Louisiana’s lack of preparedness and lack of a sense of urgency, Jefferson Parish could already be back to 100%. I promise to stay on top of Entergy until we have full power restoration and a viable solution is produced for future storm responses, whatever that may be. ~ Jefferson Parish Prez John Young Email Blast 9/5/2012
So folks, what are we to believe, the TeeVee pictures of powerline contractors sitting in staging areas or career political hack turned Entergy NOLA CEO Charles Rice? Since the storm Rice has gone on every NOLA TeeVee station saying Entergy did great after Hurricane Isaac without mentioning the 90 year old man in Marrero that died from heat stroke. Frankly watching this whole PR point-counterpoint between the area’s elected leaders and Entergy via it’s NOLA CEO Charles Rice and assorted spokespersons play out after the storm left me with way more questions than answers. This post has taken me three days of exhaustive research and interviews with 3 different area political observers along with extensive internet research to formulate the complicated, though somewhat predictable answer in this is how crony capitalism works.
First we need to review and do a compare and contrast. For that I’d like to direct everyone to the first Hurricane to hit this area back in 2005, Hurricane Cindy, which made landfall close to Grand Isle, cut across the mouth of the Mississippi River making landfall again near Waveland. It was the 2005 Hurricane that I slept through and we never lost power on the West Gulfport Beachfront as the old pre Katrina grid did well. That said the USA Today has an old AP story that tells the tale of damage:
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) — Heavy rain and storm surge flooded low-lying streets along the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a rapidly weakening Tropical Storm Cindy pushed inland after leaving more than 300,000 homes and businesses without electricity.
By and large the area did well with only 300,000 people without power in a 2 state area populated by millions. Remember this was the pre-Katrina grid that had some age on it when Cindy hit, not the almost brand spanking new infrastructure that is the post Katrina landscape. Before Isaac hit, Entergy NOLA CEO Charles Rice commented to Bloomberg on Entergy’s readiness for Isaac: Continue reading “Slabbed is on it like white on Rice: Why does Entergy have a political hack as its NOLA CEO. A systems failure update.”