Hurricane Laura: Saturday afternoon power update
Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker gives an update on power restoration Saturday afternoon.
In a Saturday afternoon video, Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker said roughly 50% of the city's power grid had been restored, and he was still "confident in the Tuesday deadline" by which the city aims to restore power to 100% of its utility customers who are able to receive it.
Hurricane Laura wiped out about 95% of the city's power as it blew through as a Category 1 hurricane Thursday morning. Walker said bringing back power to some areas will require specialized equipment from outside companies, some of which had already arrived by Saturday, and some of which the city was still awaiting.
"We're making great strides with electrical, but it still takes a lot of time," he said.
He addressed what he called "misinformation" that has led some residents to believe they will not regain power for 10 days or more. Walker said the Tuesday deadline he set on Friday is still the goal to restore power to every customer whose home is able to receive it.
"If there's something wrong with your house... we can't give you power until you get that fixed," he said.
Meanwhile, the latest outage figures from Entergy, which hadn't updated since 7 p.m. Friday, show 7,841 Entergy customers with outages in Lincoln Parish. The report shows 75% of damage assessments complete. No estimated restoration time will be provided until all assessments have been completed.
Claiborne Electric Co-op shows 3,797 outages in the parish, almost 84% of its customers.
No updates from Suddenlink Communications were available.
