No plan yet for return of power to New Orleans

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

If it was Enron they'd have their money now.

By Kevin Krolicki
Sat Nov 5, 4:12 PM ET



NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The bankrupt utility that supplies power and gas to New Orleans has not set a timetable for restoring service to the city's storm-ravaged eastern neighborhoods and the Lower Ninth Ward, the company's chief executive told an angry crowd of residents on Saturday.


Entergy New Orleans, a subsidiary of Entergy Corp., needs a $450 million federal bailout to replace equipment destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and finance operations over the next year, Chief Executive Dan Packer said.

Packer, speaking to more than 400 evacuees spilling out of a jammed City Hall meeting room, said Entergy did not expect to be able to restart its two gas-fired power plants in New Orleans until summer 2006.

Entergy has restored electric service to only about 24 percent of its pre-storm levels in New Orleans and is having to repair and replace more than half of its substations after they were swamped with flood water, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051105/ts_nm/hurricanes_power_dc

[Dover]

1. Now they know a little of what living in Iraq must be like....

Opportunistic, incompetent, corrupt.

[pitohui]

16. what a hateful thing to say

orleans parish voted overwhelming for kerry

they are not to blame for the war in iraq

educate yrself before dumping on ppl next time

i shouldn't have to be posting this same comment several times a week on a site called democratic underground

if you don't know what you're talking abt, try not talking abt it

[Dover]

28. That was not my intention at all..........

I have nothing but empathy for those in New Orleans.

My point was that what they suffer is similar to that being experienced by the citizens of Iraq. And the culprits are the same....the U.S. government.

[azureblue]

2. flooding of New Orleans is Bush's fault

Why aren't the leaders in New Orleans loudly putting the blame for the flooding of New Orleans right where it belongs- on Bush? Why can't the state of Louisiana sue the federal government for the damages it allowed (caused) to happen to New Orleans & the rest of LA?

[DFWdem]

5. How do you figure?

Bush is to blame for many things that are wrong with the country, but the flood in N.O. isn't one of them. Inaction by local, state, and federal gov't officials since 1965, when hurricane Betsy struck, is to blame for the flooding. They've known for 40 years that this would happen, yet everyone chose to ignore the problem, saying they would get to it next year, then the next, then the next.....

[mbperrin]

6. Actually, it IS his fault; he vetoed a chance to make up all those years

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/08/29/slashed-hurricane/

Bush Slashed Hurricane Funding For New Orleans

Yesterday, President Bush said “I want to thank all the folks at the federal level and the state level and the local level who have taken this storm seriously.” He’s not one of them. Bush has sought to slash funds that would help New Orleans prepare for a major hurricane. From the 6/6/05 New Orleans CityBusiness:

In fiscal year 2006, the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bracing for a record $71.2 million reduction in federal funding…The cuts mean major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now.



lots more........

[DFWdem]

7. He's simply one of many

$71 million wouldn't have kept the city dry. Bush is responsible for the pathetic response by FEMA following Katrina, but the levees needed a lot more than $71 million dollars ot withstand a storm of that magnitude.

[daleo]

9. Bush may only be partially to blame

But it was the whole Bush/Reagan cut corners mentality (especially when it comes to the poor) that is ultimately to blame. Bush is an excellent symbol for that. His cake eating and guitar playing are almost eerily perfect manifestations of that mindset.

Bush also did literally cut money just before the storm hit, I believe.

[No Exit]

13. The Army Corps of Engineers is FEDERAL.

Bush is in charge of the federal government. The Army Corps of Engineers was in charge of the levees.

So if the Army Corps of Engineers failed, that means the federal government failed. Bush has been in charge of the federal government for 5 years. Why did he not do something to make sure the Army Corps of Engineers properly did its job?

[pitohui]

15. well you know, you are trying to be logical

and some ppl would rather dump on an inexperienced freshman mayor and a freshman governor than look at the real cause of the problem, which is that intrastructure in new orleans has been underfunded for decades

[No Exit]

17. Yeah... those people are republican shills!

[pitohui]

20. some of them are

i think most here are just naive but check out nola.com community discussion, a good many shills there screaming for blanco's head etc.

we have a major disaster & all a certain element can think abt is grabbing the state for the GOP

[DFWdem]

24. Yes, it is federal

Yes, the federal government failed in not building the levees strong enough. So why didn't Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, or Kennedy do anything about it?

[rfkrfk]

25. the levees that failed were the jurisdiction of the state, not feds

check this link

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9342186


first paragraph...
The unveiling of the Mardi Gras Fountain was celebrated this year in typical New Orleans style. The cost of $2.4 million was paid by the Orleans Levee Board, the state agency whose main job is to protect the levees surrounding New Orleans — the same levees that failed after Katrina hit.



if anyone is interested, I'll post more links

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Still no power! nt

[DFWdem]

4. My brother lives in Uptown N.O.

He told me last week that local officials said it could be a year before some areas of N.O. had power restored. Not surprising considering the scope of the devestation. You can't just bring power grids back online without checking the connection to every structure to be certain the electricity won't ignite a fire.

[No Exit]

11. But what about the parts of uptown that didn't flood--which

I thought was most or all of uptown?

Christ, it looks like Algiers and the Quarter are the only parts of the city that are running. (Or... does the Quarter not even have full power back?)

Death of a great city...

[pitohui]

14. this is not true

i know for a fact that some houses in mid-city and uptown have power, so it is not true that algiers & quarter are the only areas in orleans w. power

many areas of gentilly, lakeview, eastern new orleans are not safe to turn on power, because of the damage to the wiring, houses knocked off their foundation by rush of water, etc, a raging fire can kill your house just as good as a flood

[No Exit]

18. I'm glad some houses in mid-city and uptown have power.

I'm also glad you're saying that in public. Right now all we hear are horror stories--and those stories are calculated to keep New Orleanians from trying to go back, and if they don't go back, the nasty real estate sharks will take over the city, and bye-bye to the real New Orleans.

[pitohui]

22. definitely go back and check

there are certainly widespread areas without power but in mid-city and uptown GO BACK and check now, you have a good chance of having power and the sooner you start removing flooded drywall, etc. the better chance you have of a good outcome for your house

if there is power in yr neighborhood, but it's unsafe to turn on your house until you get an electrician, they leave you a doorhanger telling you the electric co. came by, the sooner you start looking for a licensed electrician, the sooner you'll get your repair, i'm in st. tammany & my hub's employer actually drove around until he could hire an electrician off another job, for which i'm very grateful!

gentilly, lakeview, new orleans east, 9th ward in orleans, i would not count on having power but you might as well take advantage of your "look see" to see what the real story is

this is going to take time, a lot of time, but it's early days, and we have to keep reminding ourselves that this is not the worst case scenario, more were evacuated than in any simulation, the mississippi river did not jump into the atchafalaya basin etc. you know the horror stories, i keep thinking this is not real & it could not be any worse, but the simulations were far worse (60 % instead of 80 % evacuated in advance for one example)

you can't rebuild a full-sized city in a few months but ppl just got to hang in there & don't despair

to be honest i think it's the renters who have not been returning, most (admittedly not all) of the homeowners i know have been back & plan to rebuild, rents are just sky-high & what FEMA is giving for rent is enough to encourage the renter to go to a more affordable area

the homeowners won't be bought off so cheaply

[KamaAina]

8. "A city takeover of the bankrupt utility"?!

By the city that just laid off half its workforce? :rofl:

Entergy New Orleans has received $200 million in financing from its parent company, Entergy Corp., which has relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, from its office in downtown New Orleans.

But Packer said that projected restoration costs of $325 million made it impossible for his subsidiary, which has assets of $480 million, to emerge from bankruptcy on its own, and needs a federal bailout.

Without that bailout, city officials have said they would have to approve a more than doubling in electricity rates and consider a city-takeover of the bankrupt utility.

Ah, the irony! Entergy New Orleans used to be known as NOPSI -- New Orleans Public Service, Inc. -- for that was its name when -- you got it -- the city sold it to Entergy years ago! As a city-owned utility, NOPSI not only supplied power to the city but operated its famous streetcars as well. Hmmm... given RTA chair Reiss's inflammatory statements about not bringing back certain classes of people, maybe bringing back NOPSI is a good idea!

[No Exit]

10. My New Orleanian friends just got their Entergy bill.

They left N.O. the day before the hurricane, and have been gone ever since, except for some brief trips he has taken to settle matters with the house, which had 10 feet of water standing in it for 2-3 weeks, and for which they have still not been paid the insurance claim (they had both flood insurance, and homeowners insurance.)

Needless to say, since their house is totalled, it can't have power in it, nor can it be lived in.

Meanwhile, Entergy has sent them their power bill. Now isn't that special?

[pitohui]

12. bankrupt?

they are charging record high prices to those who do have power, claiming they need to clear the debt caused by katrina, which i find odd, since they also claim to have declared bankruptcy, a funny kind of bankruptcy where they are charging customers extra $$$ for costs that are going to be discharged under the bankruptcy?

"regular" people can't afford what they are charging, no use coming back if this is going to be the new cost of power

[fshrink]

19. So here we are,

the most powerful, wealthy nation in the world, unable to take care of one of our main cities damaged by bad weather... Work was faster and without bankrupcy after the WTC went down. It is amazing how much people can put up with in this country. Virtually limitless.

[Rex]

21. $23 million for repairs to a levee is now a $450 million bill.

Unbelievable how bad things are in America. Yet Repukers plan on cutting more federal spending on the American infrastructure. Cuts to the elderly, poor just in time for winter. :(

[pitohui]

23. for want of a nail

frankly i think bush, drownie etc. belong in jail, jobs being handed out for favors...it's the second coming of u.s. grant right down to the substance abuse issues...

[PaulaFarrell]

26. They made $350 million profit last quarter

so they could pay for the work if they wanted to. But they want some good ol corporate welfare. Guess shareholders are ware more important than customers


http://www.forbes.com/associatedpress/feeds/ap/2005/11/01/ap2311825.html

[cleofus1]

27. the damage this city went thru is unimaginable...

i just can't believe it has taken this long to get so little done...i guess NO is just not a priority...