New Orleans (WVUE)-A major transmission tower collapsed and the Diocese of Orleans was completely cut off.
An official from the Jefferson Diocese said that the transmission tower that provided electricity to New Orleans and the east bank of the Diocese had collapsed into the river near Bridge City. According to the Diocese’s Director of Emergency Management, the cable across the Mississippi River is now in the water, but the darkness hinders visibility.
According to Entergy, all eight major transmission lines have been closed. Due to the weather, they were unable to assess the damage. Entergy is providing backup power to the city’s sewage and water supply bureau, but it has had a major impact on the pumping station.
As a city, we are currently experiencing the most severe impact of Hurricane Ida. Although we have lost all of Entergy’s electricity, our team is quickly and decisively using our self-generated power (including turbines 4, 5, and 6 and EMD, as well as a backup generator at our drainage pumping station) to make up for this. The Entergy power outage is a major power outage for our 60 Hz and 25 Hz water pumps powered by frequency converters, but we are using self-generated power to drain rainwater and pump drinking water into the city. Finally, this power loss will also affect our sewer pumping station. Currently, there is no backup power source to run any affected equipment. We are evaluating how many of the 84 sites are affected, but this number may be very large. We have worked hard to obtain backup power for some of these stations, and we will mobilize these units while safely crossing the city. In order to prevent the backflow of sewage, we require residents to limit the amount of water used at home, thereby reducing the amount of waste water we must pump and treat. This is a rapidly evolving and extremely unstable situation. As the situation develops, we will notify you in time.
We are keeping in touch with Entergy and City. All we can do now is to take refuge in place, and when they see safety, they will begin to assess the damage. We don’t know how long the power outage will last. We will have a better idea when we start the damage assessment in the morning. They have public utility personnel staged and ready to assess the damage. Everyone needs to stay away from collapsed power cords.
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