The Entergy Nuclear Employee Spotlight recognizes team members exhibiting a safe working culture, passion for teamwork, an always learning attitude, upholding integrity, and being respectful. 

Pitre, who joined Entergy in 2009, has been based at the West-Cal Arena and Events Center near Lake Charles, Louisiana for several weeks. It was one of the staging sites for the trucks, housing, equipment and food service needed as Entergy and contractor teams rebuilt the southwest Louisiana transmission system destroyed by the storm. 

Typically, Pitre would be involved in planning security exercises at Waterford 3, but the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic halted that activity, so he stepped forward for hurricane relief. “I’m also from that area, Houma, Louisiana, so I take it personally,” he noted.

At the arena, Pitre shadowed the site managers and quickly got up to speed. He helped make the site layout more efficient, re-routed traffic patterns, coordinated lodging and assisted with sign placement. 

“As we built a rapport with team members, they would tell us the problems they were experiencing,” he said, adding that he helped organize the delivery of water and ice to groups from out of state that were not used to the Louisiana heat – a critical safety issue.

The assignments kept coming. “Brendan is a tremendous asset. When we needed tents, Brendan found a solution on his own by going to various stores in the area and coordinated with a site teammate.” said J.R. Haley, usually the director of Entergy’s MaxGen IT project, yet, served as a temporary site staging manager.

COVID-19 precautions were also part of the job. “We had two COVID checkpoints at the entrance of each building. Each checkpoint had masks, temperature scanners and hand sanitizer. We probably went through 10,000 masks,” Pitre said.

For more information about Entergy’s restoration efforts following Hurricane Laura, visit entergy.com/hurricanelaura.

While Lord and his team were working on power lines in Westlake, Louisiana, located in the devastated Lake Charles metropolitan area, they encountered an unexpected friend near a hotel in nearby Hackberry.

“A little dog, about 15-20 pounds, with brown shaggy hair, came up to us in a parking lot. He was happy but real dirty,” Lord said.

Lord and the work crew took to the dog and looked after him. “He loves to play and cuddle. He’s just an awesome, lovable dog. In the truck, he’d sit between me and my partner,” Lord said.

The place where they found him is a wet area, so they started calling him Swampy. He wore a tag, so the crew tried to reunite him with his family.

“We assumed he’d gotten lost. We called the number on the tag, which was to a local animal care facility, but it was closed. We called the police, hotel, gas station,” Lord noted.

With no responses after a few days, Lord’s wife, Amy, daughter Amelia and son Loren began to drive down from their home in Chicago to collect Swampy. When they were halfway to Louisiana, a Facebook post by crew member Lee Shappa resulted in a call from Swampy’s family, and Lord received a poignant surprise.

He learned that Swampy’s real name is Strike,r and he belongs to Brenda Venable, a Hackberry resident. Her daughter, Jenny Logan, called to pick up Striker.

“My mom is 69 and has stage four cancer. When Striker was missing, all she would do is sleep. We rode around looking for him and she said, ‘If he’s gone, he’s gone. There’s nothing we can do,’” Logan said.

The family’s home had been destroyed by Hurricane Laura, and they were living in Logan’s camper, with a generator providing power. When she arrived to pick up Striker, “all the men were around him,” she said, referring to Lord, Shappa, crew member Bill Garriga and General Foreman Kyle Quinlan.

In the next couple of days, Logan returned to the work site with Striker so Lord’s wife and children could meet the little dog before they returned home – and Lord received another surprise.

“My mother said that if something happens to her, she wants Striker to go to them. So when God calls mom home, Striker’ll go to Mr. Lord. I talked to my children, and they said that was fine,” Logan said.

She added that she was extremely grateful to the PMI crew. “The linemen took very good care of him. They’ve been a godsend. They didn’t have to do what they did,” she said.

So whether he’s Striker or Swampy, he’ll be with a caring family. “He’s a lover,” Lord said.

While they worked on restoring the essential service of electricity to a battered community, line workers proved that their dedication even included looking after the least of us – a lost dog.

“It’s one of the best things about this job – being able to help out,” said Lord. He’s been in the field about two weeks, but said, “I’ll stay as long as they need me.”

The Entergy Nuclear Employee Spotlight recognizes team members exhibiting a safe working culture, passion for teamwork, an always learning attitude, upholding integrity, and being respectful. 

As the current vice president of the Grand Gulf U.S. Women in Nuclear chapter, Robinson enjoys helping young people understand nuclear power and the many careers available in the profession.

“Educating youth about Grand Gulf is important. We have held back-to-school drives, Thanksgiving drives and donated hundreds of canned goods to four or five food banks,” Robinson said.

Activities with the Girl Scouts hold a special place in Robinson’s heart. She served with the Grand Gulf WIN team, which hosted Girl Scouts from several Mississippi chapters for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) activities that helped them receive their nuclear patch.

She is an active member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a venerable membership organization of primarily college-educated African American women that promotes academic excellence and provides assistance to those in need.

“I enjoy giving back to my community through many efforts such as performing community service with Delta Sigma Theta,” said Robinson, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Alcorn State University. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University in Prairie View Texas.

As an engineering supervisor, Robinson oversees civil design work, maintenance rule structural walkdowns and civil engineering functions, including rigging evaluations and plant modifications.

Before Entergy, she worked for a company where she designed, fabricated and constructed water tanks and pressure vessels. She has been with Entergy for almost 12 years and noted, “I started as a civil design engineer and worked my way to a supervisor, so I can truly say that I have always worked in my field.”

Robinson described the teamwork atmosphere at Grand Gulf as supportive and positive. She discusses how the Grand Gulf team helps each other and rallies together around issues as a cohesive unit.

Her advice for team members is “never be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. I remember when I had to perform tasks that were not necessarily in my field of work, however, that same experience helped me get to where I am today. Ultimately, get into things that can help you grow in your field.”