As Hurricane Laura hit parts of Texas and Louisiana on Aug. 27, some Huntsville residences experienced rolling blackouts that lasted for a couple of hours.
The Connection at Huntsville, an apartment affected by loss of electricity, told their residents that outages were caused by Entergy.
“Unfortunately, Entergy was not able to provide a reason for the outage or an ETA,” The Connection’s office staff said in a text message to residents. “There are 1,700 people in the area without power.”
The outages many people experienced in the region were actually due to purposeful measures taken by Entergy.
Since Laura damaged Entergy’s transmission system, the rolling blackouts were a way to ensure that prolonged outages didn’t cause too much damage to the power grid, according to Entergy’s newsroom.
Hurricane Laura made landfall in Louisiana on Aug. 27 as a Category 4 storm, then weakened to a Category 2, according to CNN.
Following the situation, Entergy began working hard to find a solution for their hurricane damages.
“We have some repairs that we hope to make tonight [Aug. 27] that will help improve the integrity of the transmission system, and eliminate the need for future power curtailment,” according to Entergy’s newsroom.
As of Aug. 29, Entergy’s newsroom released 74% of Texas customers had restored power, which leaves 74,597 still without power during that time. The city of Groves will be restored Aug. 31 and the Orange area has an estimated restoration date of Sept. 4.
Here are a few of the tips Entergy suggests to lessen electricity usage if customers voluntarily do so:
- Raise central air conditioners to 78 degrees.
- Close window blinds, drapes and curtains to reduce warming.
- Cook foods at the lowest possible setting.
- Resist the temptation to open the oven door while baking.