SPECIAL TO L'OBSERVATEUR

BATON ROUGE �“ In the days leading up to the start of the 2009 hurricane season, which officially began Monday, representatives from Entergy Louisiana LLC and Entergy Gulf States said their work crews are ready to quickly and safely restore power should a destructive storm hit Louisiana.

The companies talked about their readiness at a press conference in Baton Rouge last month and provided information on Entergy’s Storm Center �“ a Web site accessible from Entergy’s home page that is activated during a hurricane. The site experienced heavy use by customers during Gustav and Ike. If a hurricane strikes Louisiana, Entergy’s Storm Center will provide restoration updates, outage maps, information on hurricane safety and preparedness, restoration videos and photographs.

“We understand that if a major storm strikes Louisiana, a loss of power doesn’t just affect local communities, it also affects the state and the nation as a whole,” said Renae Conley, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana. “We put a lot of forethought and effort into preparing for storm season, and we are ready to respond to any storm that threatens our area.”

The featured speaker at the conference was Chris Hebert, lead hurricane meteorologist at ImpactWeather, an organization out of Houston that develops forecasts for impending storms. In addition to giving a brief prediction of the 2009 storm season, Hebert discussed his Hurricane Severity Index, a new way to measure major storms that uses both wind speed and the size of the storm to calculate its strength.

“Just looking at the wind speed on the Saffir-Simpson scale doesn’t tell the whole story of how destructive a storm is,” Hebert said. “The Saffir-Simpson scale is based on maximum winds and does not consider the size or scope of the wind field. It also doesn’t predict storm surge. It is not a good estimate of potential damage.”

Conley and Entergy “Storm Boss” Randy Helmick, vice president of transmission, reviewed Entergy’s response to hurricanes Gustav and Ike and outlined preparations for the 2009 storm season. Special emphasis was placed on how electricity is restored. The event also featured a tour of the Baton Rouge-area Distribution Operations Center, an Arcs and Sparks safety demonstration and a model showing how power is restored after a hurricane.

“We’ve undertaken hurricane drills to ensure that our employees are prepared in case a storm hits the Entergy service territory,” Helmick said. “We’ve also reviewed our mutual assistance agreements with other utility companies to make sure that manpower and resources are available should a storm hit. In short, we are prepared for hurricane season.”