Olga causes damage, power outages throughout parish
Published 3:53 am Wednesday, October 30, 2019
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Tropical Storm Olga blew through Washington Parish early Saturday morning, and the harsh weather caused damage to a number of trees, power lines and poles. Thousands of parish residents temporarily lost power due to the storm, according to local utility providers.
Eunice Hall Harris, customer service representative for Entergy, said that 1,023 Washington Parish customers remained without power as of 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
At that time, Harris reported that Entergy had completed its partial damage assessment for the Northshore area. She said that the company had already responded to 41 broken poles, 130 spans of downed wire, eight down transformers and 12 broken cross-arms.
“Three tree-trimming crews began arriving on the Northshore on Saturday evening, with two heading on to the Bogalusa area,” she said. “There were numerous trees down across roadways, along with flooding, making some of the roads inaccessible.”
Harris said that Tangipahoa Parish had 11,042 customers who remained without power due to the storm, as of 4:30 p.m. Saturday. St. Tammany Parish had 729 customers lose power, Livingston Parish had 227, and St. Helena Parish had 16.
Coylean Schloegel, manager of marketing and development for Washington St. Tammany Electric Cooperative (WSTE), said at 1:30 p.m. Saturday that 896 of WSTE’s Washington Parish members were still without power. At that time, 7.58 percent of all of the cooperative’s members were without power, Schloegel said.
That total number also included 2,641 members in St. Tammany Parish and 334 members in Tangipahoa Parish, according to Schloegel.
In Bogue Chitto Heights, just outside the town of Franklinton, multiple power lines were damaged by the heavy winds of the storm. Several roads were temporarily blocked due to low-lying utility lines.