Entergy New Orleans, Inc. Restoration Level Reached 96 Percent Sunday Morning

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy Corporation's Louisiana utilities expect to have power restored to 70 percent of Louisiana customers affected by Hurricane Gustav by Sunday night.

Entergy New Orleans, Inc. had restored power to 96 percent of its customers by 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Entergy Gulf Utilities Louisiana, L.L.C. estimated more than 60 percent of Baton Rouge metro area customers should have power restored by the end of Sunday.

'We are making significant progress in restoring power thanks to the skill and dedication of the thousands of workers we have deployed across Louisiana,' said Renae Conley, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Louisiana, LLC and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana. 'We remain on schedule and are confident we will meet our restoration goals. For those customers who are still without power, we ask for your continued patience and understanding. There are many of us at Entergy who know firsthand how stressful it is to still be without power because of Gustav. We also know how hard everyone at Entergy is working to get all customers' lights back on as soon as possible.'

Other highlights include:

-- Entergy Louisiana has restored more than 275,000 customers as of 11:30 a.m. Sunday, while Entergy Gulf States Louisiana has restored to roughly 167,000 customers. At the peak of the storm, more than 442,000 Entergy Louisiana customers and approximately 280,000 Entergy Gulf States Utilities Louisiana customers had lost power.

-- Entergy New Orleans had power to approximately 103,000 customers by 11:30 a.m. Sunday. At the peak of the storm, nearly 108,000 New Orleans customers were without power.

-- Approximately 90 percent of customers in upper Jefferson Parish should have power by the end of Sunday. Full restoration is expected by the end of Tuesday for that part of the parish.

-- More than 60 percent of customers in the Baton Rouge metro area, which includes Port Allen, Gonzales and Denham Springs, should have power restored by Sunday night. Approximately 119,000 Baton Rouge area customers, or 52 percent, had power as of 11:30 a.m. Sunday, and another 25,000 were expected to be restored by the end of Sunday.