NEW ORLEANS - On Wednesday morning, Entergy Louisiana announces that it is making progress in responding to widespread outages in New Orleans. 

Shortly after midnight, Entergy crews were able to restore power to some customers in Eastern New Orleans with generation supplied by the New Orleans Power Station. 

The company said, "This is the first step in bringing power back to the metro region, after Hurricane Ida left devastating destruction in its path."

Entergy has taken the first step to restoring power back to the region. The first light shined early this morning in New Orleans East. Crews will have to methodically bring back additional transmission lines over time to provide additional pathways for progress. pic.twitter.com/QffGMrENF5

— Entergy Louisiana (@EntergyLA) September 1, 2021

Entergy says that while initial service can be provided to some customers, the full restoration will still take time given the significant damage across the region. 

The company explained that crews will have to methodically bring back additional transmission lines over time to provide other pathways for power to enter the region, helping to maintain stability of the system throughout the complete restoration process.

Additionally, crews will continue work to repair damage across the distribution lines that serve homes and neighborhoods across the region.

According to Entergy, extensive damage to the system across the region means much of the redundancy built into the electric system is limited.

The company says, "This makes it difficult to move power around the region to customers, and limits options to power customers in the event of equipment failure or additional damage to the system."

Entergy New Orleans, LLC provides electricity to more than 200,000 customers.