Do you remember what you were doing on Labor Day 10 years ago?

If you’re an Entergy Mississippi customer chances are you do. Because on that fateful Monday–September 1, 2008—tens of thousands of our customers weren’t grilling burgers, playing flag football or enjoying an end-of-summer beach trip.

Instead, they were dealing with a blow from a catastrophic storm.

Gustav Gone Wild

Hurricane Gustav made landfall that day near Cocodrie, Louisiana as a strong Category 2, causing outages to more than 38,700 Mississippi customers.

They were part of nearly 964,000 Entergy customers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas who lost power due to this storm. Only Hurricane Katrina caused more outages. The extent of damage to our equipment made Gustav the second-worst natural disaster in ·¡²Ô³Ù±ð°ù²µ²â’s 100-plus year history.

In Mississippi, Gustav required the repair or replacement of:

• 27 substations
• 10 transmission lines
• 174 distribution poles
• 984 spans of wire
• 69 transformers
• 121 cross arms

The hardest hit areas were rural, which made restoring service even more difficult. We used helicopters to patrol lines that traversed through off-road rugged terrain. We had to use bulldozers to pull equipment into a number of locations due to the flooded rights-of-way. We even had to hand-carry equipment and cross arms to several inaccessible locations.

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Despite all this–the extreme damage, inclement weather conditions and rugged terrain—1,100 linemen and vegetation workers restored power in three days.

Linemen assess damage after the storm and prepare for restoration.Ìý

It Only Takes One…

There’s no guarantee that a major storm won’t affect us this year, and it only takes one to make the season disastrous. That is why it is vital that we prepare for every storm season, regardless of the predictions.

…So Let’s Stay in Touch

We have many ways to keep you informed while we work to restore your power. As you plan for hurricane season, make sure you know how to communicate with us:

• An app is available for iPhone or Android at entergy.com/app that you can use to report outages or check the power status at your home or business.
• Our View Outages website includes maps that show outage locations and give restoration estimates.
• Entergy sends and can receive about storm and restoration efforts. Sign up today by texting REG to 368374.
• The Entergy Storm Center website has storm safety, preparation and restoration information that updates throughout the day.
• Operation Storm Ready, a free downloadable guide, helps you plan and prepare for weather emergencies.
• Social media plays an important role in keeping customers informed. We place a high priority on keeping our social media sites updated throughout an event. Follow Entergy Mississippi at Twitter: and facebook.com/EntergyMS.

Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

The chance of a hurricane hitting our area in any given year is very real. That’s why we have a plan of continuous preparation, training and action. We call it Operation Storm Ready .

We monitor weather around the clock every day of the year. When weather threatens, we use forecasts, computer modeling and past experience to form early predictions about potential power outages and how long restoration might take.

We assess our ability to bring in and sustain thousands of restoration workers from around the country if needed. Assessing damage, deploying personnel to the right place with the right materials and restoring power are all processes that we continually plan and improve.

With our plans in place, together we should be ready to weather any storm that comes our way.

Robbin Jeter

Vice President of Distribution Operations

We have undertaken reliability improvement projects throughout our 45-county service area. We have replaced aging copper wire with new, stronger aluminum, swapped out wooden poles for ones made of stronger materials and even relocated entire sections of lines and poles. We are currently working on one of these relocation projects in Franklin County.

From Worst to First

More than half a century ago, when linemen first built out the energy grid in this rural county, the lines and poles ran through rolling hills, misty valleys and pine forests. Copper was the standard conductor of the day.

This year we identified a primary circuit that delivers energy to about 1,200 residents as one of our poorer-performing circuits. We are completely rebuilding it in an area that is easier for crews to reach and that better aligns with the population.

Building the Utility of the Future

The existing line parallels the railroad track and is hard to access. We’re moving it to Highway 84, and should have most of the work done by the end of the year. The $1.55-million project is part of our commitment to improve service reliability through modernizing the grid as we build the utility of the future.

The project includes replacing some 125 wooden poles with about 160 new ones. Highway crossings will have steel poles. Crews will also replace 147 spans of copper wire with 189 spans of aluminum wire, which is stronger. The project will encompass up to 10 miles of line.

Crews have already removed vegetation and cleared the right-of-way. Construction began in late July. As the project progresses, Entergy will notify affected customers about planned outages.

The project will not only improve reliability for customers, but also for visitors to the Camp Ridge Point and Redneck Ridge campgrounds. It will make the area more desirable for economic growth, as well.

All in a Day’s Work

As Mississippi has grown so have ·¡²Ô³Ù±ð°ù²µ²â’s energy assets. Today, we manage more than 20,000 miles of electrical lines, 291 substations, five natural gas plants and one nuclear plant. Whether it involves maintenance or repair, building or rebuilding, it is all in a day’s work for Entergy Mississippi.

Hurricane Season is not just a coastal issue. If one of these storms makes landfall, it can cause significant damage far inland—including flooding if the storm stalls, severe thunderstorms or tornadoes, which are known to spin off from hurricanes. Often, this is accompanied by widespread power outages. That’s why it’s important to prepare for hurricane season, which runs from June through November, no matter where in the state you live.

Another Busy Hurricane Season

For 2018, brace yourself for another busy hurricane season. That’s what we’re hearing from those in the know—such as NOAA and the researchers at Colorado State University who are experts at predicting what the notoriously unpredictable season has in store.

Last year was busy, too. Remember Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria? But that doesn’t guarantee that we’ll get a break this year. In fact, the experts predict 14 tropical storms and expect seven to become hurricanes. Three of the seven are expected to be major—category 3 or higher with minimum winds of 111 miles per hour.

It Only Takes One

While there’s no guarantee that a storm will affect us in Mississippi, it only takes one major hurricane to turn the season into a disastrous one, which means we all need to prepare the same for every season, regardless of the predictions.

Here’s How We Prepare

We know the chance of being hit by a hurricane in any given year is very real. That’s why we have a plan of continuous preparation, training and action called .Ìý

That plan calls for monitoring weather around the clock every day of the year. When weather threatens, Entergy uses forecasts, computer modeling and past experience to form early predictions about potential power outages and how long restoration might take.Ìý

We assess our ability to bring in and sustain thousands of restoration workers from around the country, if needed. Assessing damage, deploying personnel to the right place with the right materials and restoring power are all processes that we continually plan and improve.Ìý

Here’s How You Can Prepare, Too

We have a number of ways to keep you informed while we work to restore your power. As you plan for hurricane season, make sure you are aware of all of the ways to receive information from us and to send information to us, as well:Ìý

• An app is available for iPhone or Android at entergy.com/app. Customers can use the app to report outages or check on the status of power at their home or business.
• ·¡²Ô³Ù±ð°ù²µ²â’s View Outages website includes maps that show where outages are located and give information about restoration progress.
• Entergy sends and can receive about storm and restoration efforts. Sign up by texting REG to 368374.
• The website has storm safety, preparation and restoration information that we update throughout the day.
• , a free downloadable guide, helps you plan and prepare for weather emergencies.
• Social media plays an important role in keeping customers informed, and we place a high priority on keeping our social media sites updated throughout an event. Follow Entergy Mississippi at Twitter: and .

Stay Safe!

While we hope for the best, we plan for the worst. With our plans in place, together we should be ready to weather any storm that comes our way.