Cat knocks out power to much of New Orleans after getting into Entergy substation

NEW ORLEANS – Thousands of Entergy New Orleans customers lost power for more than an hour after a cat got into a substation Monday morning.

The outages began around 8:30 a.m. Monday morning. All of the 7,556 people who lost power in Mid-City, Central City and Uptown, had power back before noon according to the Entergy New Orleans outage map.

The outage caused traffic light failures in some of the city’s key thoroughfares and intersections as rush our was winding to an end.

It also temporarily closed businesses and had those that have to start preparing food for the lunch rush put behind on their preparations.

A statement from the company said a cat got into a substation and caused a flash when it touched the equipment.

A cat got into a substation that feeds parts of Uptown, Central City, Mid-City, and the CBD, and caused a flash when it came into contact with our equipment. Crews are safely working to make equipment repairs and restore power to all as quickly as possible.

— Entergy New Orleans (@EntergyNOLA) September 17, 2018

Business owners say the frequency of the outages is frustrating.

“It would be okay if it was a one-time thing,” said Justin Pitard of Avery’s restaurant on Tulane Avenue. “But, when I got the phone call, it was pretty normal. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Entergy New Orleans said it is unusual for a cat to get into a substation and around protected devices. The company said it installs protective devices to keep animals out of the equipment to protect the animals and prevent power outages.

“When this happens, the animals, unfortunately, do not survive the high-voltage contact,” a tweet from the company said.

© 2018 WWL

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