The Category 4 storm Hurricane Ida knocked out power to the entire city of New Orleans late Sunday night and into Monday morning. And the blackout is expected to last for several days, or even weeks.
Entergy New Orleans tweeted Monday morning that it’ll likely take several days to assess the damage from the storm and several days after that to restore power to the city. The utility also reported that all eight of the main transmission lines into the city were out of service but that it was providing back up power to the city’s Sewerage and Water Board.
The New Orleans Advocate reports at least one hospital -- Thibideaux Regional Health System, located southwest of New Orleans -- lost power due to a failed generator. COVID patients were moved to another floor and had to be manually ventilated during transition, the paper reports. By 7 pm Sunday evening, the failed generator was back online.
One piece of good news, according to the New York Times, is that the levees appear to be holding so far, and are reportedly in good shape. The levees breaking is what caused the catastrophic flooding in the city during and immediately after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Greg Zimmerman is deputy editor, Facility Market.
