Parish president: Entergy should leave St. Tammany

By Matthew Penix
St. Tammany News
Published on Monday, September 15, 2008 10:17 AM CDT

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Parish President Kevin Davis on Thursday tongue-lashed Entergy’s recovery performance in the wake of Hurricane Gustav and would just “assume they not be in the parish,” he said.

Davis, speaking to the Parish Council during its first meeting since the storm, decried Entergy for what he called mediocre response to return power for roughly 1,700 customers in southwest St. Tammany near the Tangipahoa Parish line.

As of 5 a.m. Friday, all but two parish Entergy customers had power, roughly two weeks after Hurricane Gustav rumbled ashore, said Entergy spokesman Philip Allison.

In comparison, other power companies operating in St. Tammany, Cleco and Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative, restored power to more than 89,000 customers within a week.

Entergy responded to Davis Friday by saying the company worked as fast as possible.

“Our crews were in there as quickly as they could and worked as quickly and as safely as they could,” said Allison.

The company, which serves 131,000 customers statewide, did not focus on New Orleans instead of St. Tammany, which many behind the scenes believe happens often, Allison said.

In all, about 14,000 maintenance workers from Entergy and other utility companies from across the country who donated help worked to restore the company’s power.

But Davis still was not impressed.

He claimed on Thursday the company failed to attend scheduled meetings in the wake of Gustav and never returned repeated phone calls for updates.

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