Entergy and Southern Company Bouncing Back from Katrina

Here's some more good news from the Gulf Coast, Entergy and Southern Company are reporting significant progress in getting the power turned back on. Here's the latest from Entergy, a company that seems determined to stick it out in New Orleans:

Entergy continues making steady progress, restoring power to more than 639,000 customers while more than 452,000 remain without electrical service.

Fluctuations in the number of customers restored are common in large restoration efforts as some circuits have to be deenergized in order to complete repairs to others. As crews progress further into damaged areas, they get a more detailed look at the scope of the damage and this can impact the reported outages.

Limited service has been returned to the Central Business District and downtown New Orleans after crews restored the Market Street substation. Restoration continues to the underground networks in the CBD today.

Yes, you read that right. Just a week after one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, Entergy has restored electric power to a portion of the New Orleans central business district.

There's more progress to report from Southern Company subsidiaries Alabama and Mississippi Power. Click here for a statement from Mississippi Power, and here for a detailed rundown of all the outages and the progress the company is making to restore power. In Alabama, power has been restored to 99% of customers in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. Congratulations to all of the employees at Entergy and Southern Company who have been working around the clock to help get the Gulf Coast back in business.

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