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Power companies gearing up for severe weather threat this weekend

3 years 9 months 2 weeks ago Wednesday, June 03 2020 Jun 3, 2020 June 03, 2020 6:00 PM June 03, 2020 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE- Entergy and DEMCO crews are already on the move and preparing for possible power outages from Tropical Storm Cristobal that may affect southeast Louisiana.

With rain and thunderstorms in the forecast, utility crews are taking action and are prepared to respond to any type of emergency there may be.

"We want to be prepared for the least and the worst," DEMCO worker David Latona said. 

He says they don't know what's going to happen but they are gearing up for what's to come.

"We're going to make those accommodations that are necessary to protect our communities, as well as our employees, and our members that we serve," Latona said.

The coronavirus pandemic is slightly changing the way utility crews will operate. Workers will wear personal protective equipment and practice social distancing.

"We are practicing social distancing, and if we are affected by this storm we ask our customers to not approach our field personnel because we want them to strictly focus on power restoration," Greg Guilbeau at Entergy Louisiana said.

Guilbeau says there's a chance these precautions may cause a delay in power restorations. 

"Because of COVID-19 and practicing social distancing, it's taking longer before we can get the job started. It's just going to potentially affect the restoration time. We want our customers to understand that, and be a bit patient. But we're going to try and not let that affect things," Guilbeau said.

Entergy crews are also busy ahead of Tropical Storm Cristobal's landfall.

They are telling customers that crews are on alert and ready to safely restore service in emergency situations. 

Customers will be able to stay updated on outage restoration through the companies' phone apps. 

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