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Damage Assessment, Restoration Efforts Underway for Entergy Texas Customers

With practically all 395,000 customers in the dark, assessment of damage and restoration of electricity is underway. The company has restored some 1,200 customers in northLumberton.

Assessment is the first critical step in restoring power. To assist with assessment of damages, a fleet of 25 large helicopters have been brought in to Texas, but continued bad weather has limited their use today. Continued flooding is preventing assessment in some areas.

Workers from 33 states, theDistrict of Columbia andCanada will bring Entergy's total restoration workforce to 14,000. By Monday night, additional workers from elsewhere in the utility should arrive, bringing Entergy's total restoration workforce to 14,500. There will be 7,000 workers inTexas, 6,700 inLouisiana and 800 inArkansas, including company and resident contractors plus non-Entergy workers from the north.

Entergy Texas' transmission and distribution facilities were severely damaged in the storm. Also, the two power plants located in southeastTexas, Sabine station inBridge City and the Lewis Creek plant inMontgomery County, are both offline.

The Sabine station suffered flooding from storm surge and the Lewis Creek plant went off line as a result of damage to the electricity grid.

Sabine station will face repairs, however Lewis Creek will be brought back on line when transmission service is restored.

The key to restoration will be transmission, which brings power to large blocks of customers. With transmission operating, power can be restored even without generation plants on line.

Customers interested in county-by-county numbers of power outages can access our Web site at Entergy-Texas.com and click on View Outages.

Entergy Texas provides electricity to 395,000 customers in 26 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy Corp. is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the second-largest nuclear generator inthe United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers inArkansas,Louisiana,Mississippi andTexas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 14,300 employees.

Entergy Texas' online address is http://www.entergy-texas.com.

SOURCE Entergy Texas, Inc.