About 850,000 still without power in US after Katrina

GULF STATES, U.S. - About 850,000 electricity customers still lacked electricity nine days after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the U.S. Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to area utilities and the U.S. Department of Energy.

More than half the customers in Louisiana, or 529,000 homes and businesses, remained without power, while Mississippi had about 229,000 customers with no service.

Katrina made landfall in southern Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on August 25-26, then crashed ashore in Louisiana on August 29 as a Category 4 storm packing winds of 140 miles per hour. It left more than 4.5 million homes and businesses without power.

Entergy Corp., which had about 414,000 customers out in Louisiana and 41,000 out in Mississippi, said it would take months to rebuild its system in the hardest hit areas.

Entergy returned limited service to the central business district in New Orleans, but much of the city remains flooded and without power.

Entergy also reported extensive damage to its natural gas distribution system serving 147,000 customers in New Orleans. The company said it would have to shut off gas service to many parts of the city to repair the damage, but preserve gas flows to the power generators running the pumps moving the water out of the city.

Southern Co.'s Mississippi Power subsidiary had about 85,000 customers still without service. The company expects to restore power to all customers by September 11.

Entergy's subsidiaries own and operate about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, market energy commodities and transmit and distribute power to 2.6 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Southern's subsidiaries own and operate more than 39,000 MW of generating capacity and provide power to more than 4 million customers in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

One MW can power 800 homes, according to North American averages.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is operating at about 75 percent of its maximum. Entergy expected to return power to the LOOP's tank facility last night, according to the DOE report.

In addition, Entergy is working with General Electric Co. to obtain a 22 MW generator to provide power to the Fourchon Booster Station, which would allow operations at the LOOP to return to normal soon.

Three refineries with major damage in Louisiana remain without power, including facilities owned by ConocoPhillips in Belle Chasse, Exxon Mobil Corp. in Chalmette and Murphy Oil Corp. in Meraux.

All of the other refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi still shut due to the hurricane have access to power. Even with access to power, however, it will still take some refineries weeks to resume operations.