Thirty days ago Ida made landfall and left just under a million Entergy customers in the dark. Brooke Thorington has more on restoration…
Cut 1 (34) “…I’m Brooke Thorington.”
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Terrebonne residents left homeless from the damage caused by Hurricane Ida are still waiting for viable temporary housing. More from Dave Brannen:
Cut 2 (34)…I’m Dave Brannen”
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Thirty days after Hurricane Ida, the Louisiana Public Service Commission reports nearly eight thousand customers are without power as a result of the Category 4 storm. Entergy Louisiana VP of Distribution Operations John Hawkins says some of their customers are still not able to accept power because of damage to their homes…
Cut 3 (09) “…their lives.”
Grand Isle and Port Fourchon are amongst the hardest-hit areas and Hawkins says for those coastal communities it is an entire rebuild versus a restoration. He says crews are working 16-hour days in an effort to give them some normalcy as soon as possible.
Cut 4 (11) “…restored”
Hawkins says while work in those hardest-hit areas will remain ongoing throughout the year, he believes customers will have service long before however they will continue to harden the grid.
Hawkins says part of the restoration includes replacing equipment with more robust gear to withstand hurricane-strength winds of up to 150 miles per hour. A month out from landfall, Hawkins says they wouldn’t have been able to have the lights back on for as many customers as they do without the assistance of out-of-state crews.
Cut 5 (11) “…quicker.”
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Thousands of Terrebonne Parish residents are still having to resort to tents or storm debris as a shelter following the landfall of Hurricane Ida a month ago today. Houma Representative Tanner Magee says his efforts to find decent temporary housing for his constituents have been frustrating.
Cut 6 (12) “…my entire life”
He says the feds are making moves to get trailers sent to Terrebonne Parish, but the process is a red tape battle.
Magee is critical of FEMA for its failure to move quickly on the mobile home alternative to temporary housing, relying instead on apartments and hotel rooms.
Cut 7 (12) “…at temporary housing”
On a positive note when it comes to temporary housing, Magee says FEMA has sent out a request for proposals for 10-thousand trailers to be located in Terrebonne Parish but says it’ll be a waiting game.
Cut 8 (08) “..actual real trailers”
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Gas prices usually decline in the fall, but that’s not the case this year. According to the Louisiana Triple-A, the statewide price for a regular gallon of gasoline is $2.90. About eight cents higher than a month ago. Triple-A fuel analyst Don Redman says the big culprit in keeping pump prices high is the price of crude oil…
Cut 9 (09) “…of the year”
Redman says 16-percent of crude production in the Gulf of Mexico is still shut down because of Hurricanes Ida and Nicholas. He says uncertainty in the economy is also keeping oil prices elevated…
Cut 10 (12) “..stubornerly high”
Redman says most Louisiana refineries are running again, so hopefully, gas prices will stabilize and possibly decline as demand falls…
Cut 11 (10) “…the reality ”
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The latest trend for job seekers is to add their vaccination status to their resume and/or job application. According to an August Wall Street Journal survey of more than a thousand hiring managers, 70-percent prefer to hire vaccinated individuals. UNO Business Professor Mark Rosa says your vaccination status is almost like a credential now.
Cut 12 (07) “….about safety.”
Rosa says he feels as if employers are going to rally around the vaccination movement and we will see more workplaces requiring workers to be fully inoculated.
Cut 13 (10) “…workforce.”
The survey also noted that a third of hiring managers say they are automatically eliminating resumes that do not address vaccination status. Rosa says legally an employer can’t ask if you are vaccinated but you can volunteer the information.
Cut 14 (11) “….about.”
The vaccination status trend is also being observed on social media as jobseekers are adding their vaccination status to the top of their professional profiles on LinkedIn.
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Governor John Bel Edwards has extended Louisiana’s indoor mask mandate for another four weeks. Edwards says the states’ overall COVID-19 outlook is improving, but baseline numbers are still too high
Cut 15 (10) “…of that”
The governor is encouraged the number of new cases and COVID hospitalizations have fallen below one-thousand from a high of three-thousand. But he says the state’s level of COVID 2.5 times what the CDC considers high. He says the state’s mask mandate includes K-through-12 schools and college campuses
Cut 16 (12) “..are masked.”