Atlantic City Electric sent about 50 line workers and support crew members to Louisiana on Monday to help with the recovery from Hurricane Ida for an expected two-week deployment, according to a ACE spokesman Frank Tedesco.
There was a pre-deployment briefing in Newark, Delaware, on Monday morning, and at about noon, crews were scheduled to board about two dozen trucks for the drive to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Delmarva Power workers also joined in the convoy, according to an Exelon spokesperson. Exelon is the parent company of both ACE and Delmarva Power.
Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the United States, made landfall Sunday and soon knocked out power to the entire city of New Orleans and a large swath of the state.
It came ashore on the same date Hurricane Katrina landed 16 years earlier, causing massive damage to Louisiana and Mississippi. Katrina was blamed for 1,800 deaths as it caused levee breaches and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans.
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Crews will be assigned precise work locations once damage assessments are completed by the local utility Entergy, the spokesperson said.
The city’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness said on Twitter that energy company Entergy confirmed that New Orleans has no power, and that the only power in the city was coming from generators. The message included a screen shot that cited “catastrophic transmission damage” for the power failure.
Atlantic City Electric and Delmarva Power are units of Exelon Corporation, which has about 10 million customers.
Atlantic City Electric provides service to approximately 560,000 customers in southern New Jersey, and Delmarva Power serves about 532,000 electric customers in Delaware and Maryland and about 136,000 natural gas customers in northern Delaware.
Over the years, Atlantic City Electric has sent hundreds of crews and support personnel to assist energy companies across the country, as part of regional mutual assistance networks. Just as Atlantic City Electric provides support, crews from across the U.S. have helped with restoration efforts in this region following severe storms, an ACE spokesman said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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