Over 7,500 Slemco and 4,000 Entergy customers across the Acadiana region were without power Tuesday, according to Entergy's media team. Many of the outages were related to damage from Monday's deep freeze that brought temperature into the teens.
Around 1,900 Lafayette Utilities System electric customers were without power between 9 and 10 p.m. Monday, the peak of the system’s outages, LUS Director Jeff Stewart said.
Several hundred others experienced power outages in spot locations until around noon Tuesday. The longest any customers were without electricity through the event, he said, was about 90 minutes.
“Tree limbs were our biggest problem,” Stewart said. “The lines themselves were okay.”
Acadia Parish seems to be hit the hardest with more than 737 customers in the Branch and Iota area currently without power, according to Entergy maps. Majority of customers without electricity appear to be off Crowley Eunice Highway north of Interstate 10.
A majority of customers affected are in Acadia Parish, Slemco also reports. With 29% of Slemco's customers in the parish without power or 4,300 customers. Outages appeared to be south of Church Point and north of Crowley with clusters of outages below LA Highway 91.
The Crowley and Rayne areas have 667 customers without power spread over 18 outages, according to recent Entergy maps. Power outages started at 4 a.m., and while most of the region's power issues have been resolved, some areas along Grand Prairie Highway and Ebenezer Road are being told power will be restored by 8 p.m.
"Outages from this event are related to steady winds combined with ice buildup on tree limbs and power lines and galloping (bouncing) of power lines - all of which can cause damage to electric equipment," Brandon Scardigli of Entergy said in a written statement.
About 524 Duson customers are without power and around 150 customers in the Grand Coteau and Sunset area. About 119 customers along West LA Highway 335 and LA Highway 693 southwest of Abbeville are without electricity.
St. Martin Parish saw 1,394 Slemco customers without power with regions north of St. Martinville and the Breaux Bridge area seems the majority of outages, Slemco maps showed.
"We continue to make progress in areas where ice built up on tree limbs and branches, making them heavy enough to droop into our lines. These are individual location outages where honestly, the going will be slower because it’s one location or line section coming back on at a time. We will continue to work until every customer has their power restored," Slemco said in a Facebook post.
Entergy said teams are working to restore power to affected areas by 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Around 428 customers west of Maurice are without electricity with outages being consolidated along LA Highway 92 , maps show.
The Lake Charles area has been mostly maintained with one neighborhood south of Interstate 210 showing around 300 customers without power. East of Lake Charles, the Iowa area area 255 customers are without power
Temperatures are looking to peak at 34 degrees in Lafayette Tuesday afternoon but recede back down to the high teens.
A low of 18 degrees is expected in Lafayette with temperature solidly in the mid 20s overnight. Temperatures above 32 degrees are not expected until 11 a.m. Wednesday, weather apps show.
Entergy said power outages may fluctuate in the Acadiana region as temperatures drop once again. Crews are continuously working on impacted areas and monitoring temperatures and outages throughout the night.
"Currently, we’re shifting resources to hard-hit areas to accelerate restoration where it’s safe to do so. Our incident command structure has been activated since last week and we have operations teams in the field and within our local networks that will work together to support this restoration effort until we get the lights on for all customers," Scardigli said.
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