Plaquemine Mayor Ed Reeves lodges complaint with PSC over Entergy response to outage

Plaquemine Mayor Ed Reeves said Monday he filed a complaint with the Louisiana Public Service Commission regarding Entergy’s delayed response to outages after rain and windstorms last week.

Residents in the Plaquemine area were without power 15 hours after heavy winds and rain swept through the area late Tuesday and early Wednesday last week.

“There was no excuse for it to take Entergy that long,” Reeves said.

He said the president of Entergy reached out to him regarding the storm.

Reeves said he told David Zito, an assistant to Public Service Commissioner Craig Greene, that Entergy showed “pure neglect because poles were rotten” and the system was not being maintained.

“The wires just let go, fell on top of the others and shorted us out,” Reeves said.

Reeves said he forwarded pictures to Greene’s office that show the condition of the aging utility poles.

The biggest challenge came from the barrage of phone calls the city received from customers about the extended outage.

“The first call I got was from a lady who was on oxygen, and she was asking if she should go to Baton Rouge for treatment,” Reeves said. “I told her we were informed that the lights wouldn’t be on before noon the next day, so I had to tell her she should go to Baton Rouge.

“There was not much we could do at that time,” he said. “I understood their frustration because I was every bit as frustrated.”

Reeves said the PSC has said it will set up a meeting soon with him and Entergy to address and solve the issues that left residents and businesses in the dark.

Plaquemine absorbed the brunt in Iberville Parish. No lengthy power outages were reported in other areas.