Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston, Texas, at 2:10 a.m., CDT, Sept. 13. It caused outages for 99 percent of the Entergy Texas, Inc. customers, the highest in the company’s history. Peak outages of 392,400 in Texas occurred at 11 p.m., Sept. 13. The storm, combined with a cold front, has affected the weather throughout Entergy’s service territory today. Damage in Texas is more extensive than that caused by Hurricane Rita. Restoration for Hurricane Ike will take longer than the three weeks needed to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Rita. Outages are increasing in the Entergy Arkansas, Inc. area as Ike moves through. Entergy’s external Web site, www.entergy.com, offers photos of the Gustav destruction to Entergy’s system and an animation of restoration progress the company has made restoring electrical service in the areas affected by Hurricane Gustav. Restoration Information In Texas damage assessment and power restoration have begun where it is safe to do so. Entergy has 25 helicopters available in Texas (37 across the system) to assess transmission damage from the air more quickly than from the ground, but continued bad weather has limited their use today. Continued flooding is preventing assessment in some areas. Hurricane Ike caused outages in Arkansas last night with 60 mph wind gusts causing power outages. Restoration crews are in position and will assess damage and restore power as it is safe to do so. Entergy is shifting workers today from Louisiana to Texas. By Monday night, additional workers from elsewhere in the country should arrive, bringing Entergy’s total restoration workforce to 14,500, with 7,000 in Texas, 6,700 in Louisiana and 800 in Arkansas, including company and resident contractors, plus non-Entergy offsite workers from the north. In Louisiana, Hurricane Ike flooded lower-lying areas in Plaquemines, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes as it moved along the coast. Entergy and other restoration crews relocated prior to the storm and are moving back into those areas to continue restoration work as flood waters recede and they become accessible. As of Saturday evening, crews in Louisiana had restored power to about 95 percent of Entergy Gulf States Louisiana customers in East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes. Restoration crews, who worked in between the storm bands and wind gusts from Hurricane Ike, made significant strides in East Baton Rouge Parish on Friday and Saturday, completing much of the work in several areas that were hit hardest by Gustav. In order to manage restoration on these two fronts, Entergy will apply its proven restoration process of restoring transmission and substations first, then critical customers, such as hospitals, law enforcement locations, etc. and then taking action to get the most customers restored the fastest. During this unusual two-front restoration, the length of time customers have been without power from Gustav will be factored in to how Entergy locates its workers. At 4:30 p.m., yesterday, transmission outages caused by Ike included 209 substations, and 152 transmission lines, out of service in Texas. Entergy will not know the extent of damage until assessments are completed. Remaining Gustav damage to the transmission system includes 19 lines and 11 substations out of service. Generation Hurricane Ike flooded Entergy’s Sabine Power plant in Bridge City, Texas, with up to four feet of water. The flood has caused extensive damage to the plant that could take weeks to repair. The company’s Lewis Creek plant in Montgomery County, Texas, has shut down as a result of storm damage. The plant will be able to restart within a few hours after offsite power is restored. River Bend Station remains in shutdown status as new siding is installed to the turbine building. Once installation damaged exterior siding is completed, River Bend will be given the go-ahead to begin the regulatory checks and inspections needed for a gradual startup. Customer Safety Severe damage has occurred to Entergy’s system. Entergy reminds customers to remain safe and stay away from downed power lines and flooded areas. Do not walk in standing water and do not venture into areas of debris, since energized and dangerous power lines may not be visible. Call 800-9OUTAGE to report a power outage. Generator Safety Entergy recommends that if customers choose to use a generator, they should buy one only from a reputable dealer who can service and maintain the unit. Customers should always use portable electric generators in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. A gasoline engine usually powers stand-alone generators. Customers should use them only in well- ventilated areas. Never use a generator indoors as carbon monoxide from the exhaust is deadly. If the generator has panel-mounted electrical receptacles as part of the unit, appliances may be plugged directly into the generator. Storm Cost Our priority now is to restore utility service to our customers. Once all power has been restored, Entergy operating companies will work with state regulators on recovering costs associated with the storms. This is a process that we have gone through with state regulators in the past and it has worked well for customers. Determining costs will be more complicated as more of Entergy’s utilities were affected. The Baton Rouge area has never suffered damage as severe as that caused by Hurricane Gustav. The last storm caused damage close to this was Hurricane Andrew in 1992. As of 9 p.m., Sept. 11, Entergy had restored 93 percent of the customers affected by Gustav, with 60,586 customers still without power. It is the fastest restoration rate in the company’s history, surpassing even the historic restoration after Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Gustav caused a system peak of 850,000 customer outages across Entergy, in the early morning of Sept. 2. The system peak is defined as the single point in time when the highest number of simultaneous outages occurred across the Entergy system. In all, Gustav interrupted power for nearly 964,000 customers, including those in Arkansas and Mississippi who have since had their power restored. In terms of power outages, Hurricane Gustav is the second worst in Entergy’s 95-year history, peaking at about 850,000 early Tuesday—the overwhelming majority of them in Louisiana. That easily bypassed the 800,000 outages in Hurricane Rita in 2005. The only larger number of Entergy outages was 1.1 million in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina, which has been described as one of the worst natural disasters in American history. Damages caused by Gustav include 241 transmission lines and 354 substations knocked out of service and, in distribution, more than 8,200 poles, 12,500 spans of wire and 1,900 transformers have been confirmed as damaged or destroyed. Entergy is using specialized equipment to rebuild its system, especially in marshy areas. Special equipment includes airboats, crew boats, tug boats, barges, marsh buggies and cranes. A Chinook helicopter from the Ohio National Guard in conjunction with the Department of Energy and Department of Homeland Security was used to carry especially heavy equipment into the marsh. Entergy tested the use of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Predator Drone to survey damage from the air during the inclement weather, but cloud cover prevented seeing damage clearly enough to be of use. The View Outage system currently displays regularly updated local information about outages in the affected areas and provides estimated restoration times as they become available.