America is Fortunate to Have Dedicated Energy Workers

September 7, 2021

Electricity is easy to take for granted, until it isn’t. That’s why the United States is fortunate to have dedicated energy workers who work tirelessly to keep lights on for Americans. When storms hit and people evacuate, convoys of utility workers and their trucks head toward the trouble. They then spend days or weeks working to put people back online. We are seeing this now in New Orleans. The Wall Street Journal reports: 

Louisiana’s electricity provider restored power to most New Orleans households by Monday morning, as a heat wave continued to threaten elderly residents and other vulnerable people.

Entergy Corp. said 63% of the 205,000 New Orleans customers that lost power during Hurricane Ida had it back by 10 a.m. Monday, up from 50% on Sunday. That still left around 76,000 customers without electricity.

Statewide, about 52% of the 902,000 customers that lost power had it back, the company said.

Ida made landfall in Louisiana last week as a Category 4 hurricane with 150-mile-an-hour winds, toppling utility poles and leaving many residents without air conditioning in sweltering heat. 

The dangers related to hurricanes don’t leave with the storm. Sweltering heat without electricity can be a matter of life and death for many people. It’s extraordinary to see how quickly power is being restored. As we noted in a blog post last week, this is no simple effort. Southern Chief Executive Tom Fanning said, “When you get big transmission structures down, that’s complex to get back up in the air. That is a really big effort and can take weeks if you’re not ready to go.”

Fortunately for the citizens of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, American electricity workers were ready to go. And while we all may take electricity for granted, we should make sure that we never take these workers for granted.