Multiple outages knocked out power for thousands of Entergy customers in Ascension Parish

GONZALES – Multiple outages knocked out power for thousands of Entergy customers in Ascension Parish Tuesday morning. 

Entergy officials say two separate outages have caused the loss of power. One outage, which affected approximately 900 customers in Gonzales, was caused by vehicle damage to electrical equipment. Some witnesses said the crash involved an 18-wheeler. All businesses on Airline between Big Lots and Lowe’s closed Tuesday morning.

Gonzales Police said the driver is not being ticketed, saying that low-hanging lines were to blame for the accident. 

A second outage, which affected approximately 8,000 customers around Prairieville and Port Vincent, was caused by a loss of transmission. Officials are investigating what led to the loss. 

Traffic lights that are out on Airline must be treated as a four-way stop. 

Two schools in Ascension Parish, Bluff Ridge Primary and Prairieville Primary, were affected by the outages:

This is a developing story. 

As of 10:30 a.m., the outage in Prairieville appeared to have been resolved. The smaller outage in Gonzales was still being worked on, leaving about 900 customers without power. The company released the following statement.

Crews were able to perform field switching – essentially, rerouting of power – to restore the approximately 8,000 customers from Prairieville to Port Vincent that were affected by the loss of a transmission source. They will be investigating this outage case further by testing equipment at a substation in the Prairieville area and will take any necessary steps to improve the reliability of the electric system.

 At the location in Gonzales where a large vehicle impacted electric equipment, two crews are working to replace several utility poles and transformers and install new powerlines. Because of the extent of the damage, this work will likely proceed into the early afternoon.