NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — As the sun beats down, thousands of Entergy customers are still without power, leaving residents struggling to get through another hot night.
“We feel it, the family the kids, it’s terrible. We eat in the street because inside is very hot,” said New Orleans resident Jamie Delgado.
Sunday morning, Entergy reported that 39% of customers in New Orleans have power, but tens of thousands of people are still in the dark and frustrated to say the least.
“I feel bad, real bad. I feel like cursing somebody off,” said New Orleans resident Henry McGuffey.
McGuffey lost practically everything during Ida and now he’s trying to cope with the intense heat with no electricity in his home.
“It’s not a fit place to be in right now. For real. I wouldn’t even want to put a dog in there right now,” said McGuffey.
Entergy says Ida devastated their transmission lines and say more electrical poles went down during Ida than Hurricane Katrina, Delta and Zeta combined.
Thousands of linemen are working across the area to restore power as quickly as possible, while locals try to tolerate life without electricity.
“This taught me a lot about having patience, a lot of patience. You know, I’m not one that has a lot of patience at times, but day by day I’ve learned to have it,” said New Orleans resident Timothy O’Connell.
Entergy says most New Orleans residents can expect power in a few days, but the wait has some wishing they left before the storm.
“Maybe next time I’ll run, for real,” said McGuffey.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health, a 74-year-old New Orleans man died of heat exhaustion during this extensive power outage. Entergy says the majority of New Orleans will have power by Wednesday, September 8.
