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CLINTON, Miss., Oct 05, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall
Just under two weeks since Hurricane Rita made landfall, Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) announced today that it had restored power to over three quarters or approximately 586,000 of the more than 766,000 customers with power outages at the peak of the storm. The Louisiana and Texas service territories of Entergy Gulf States were hit hardest by Hurricane Rita, the most destructive storm ever to strike Entergy Gulf States, and the second most-destructive storm in the history of Entergy's four-state utility system. Service territories of Entergy Arkansas, Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Mississippi were also impacted, although to a much lesser extent. On September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita hit the coast of Texas and Louisiana, almost a month after Hurricane Katrina caused widespread power outages and catastrophic damage to portions of Entergy's service territory. Hurricane Rita affected 14 fossil-fueled units owned and/or operated by the Utility, and caused significant infrastructure damage to Entergy's transmission system, severing east-west connections between Lafayette, La. and Conroe, Tex. At its peak, Hurricane Rita took out of service 82 percent of Entergy's Texas transmission lines and 38 percent of the Entergy transmission lines in southwest Louisiana, including all the lines in Louisiana west of Lafayette. Virtually every transmission line between Lafayette and Conroe was knocked out of service. As of 3:00 p.m. yesterday, Entergy had restored 206 of the 344 affected transmission lines and 308 of the 436 substation outages. Five of the fossil-fueled units remain offline until storm damage repairs to those units are completed. As a result of Hurricane Rita, Entergy expects that reported revenues will be lower during third and fourth quarter 2005 due to the temporary power outages in the affected service territories. This effect will be incremental to the expected Hurricane Katrina effect arising from a combination of temporary and extended power outages resulting from that storm. Unlike Hurricane Katrina, however, Hurricane Rita is not expected to result in an extended restoration for a significant portion of the impacted customer base. Entergy expects that within three weeks of the storm it will be able to restore power to approximately 95 percent or more of the customers out at the peak of the storm. Entergy plans to pursue a broad range of initiatives to recover storm restoration costs. Initiatives include obtaining reimbursement of certain costs covered by insurance, expanding efforts for the Utility already underway to obtain assistance through federal legislation for Hurricane Rita as well as Hurricane Katrina, and pursuing recovery through existing or new rate mechanisms regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and local regulatory bodies. Entergy noted that it is unable to predict the degree of success it may have in these initiatives and the amount of restoration costs it may recover or the timing of such recovery. Entergy continues to believe it has sufficient liquidity to meet its current obligations and to fund its restoration efforts. Subsidiaries affected by Hurricane Rita -- Entergy Arkansas, Entergy Gulf States, Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Mississippi -- together with Entergy Corporation have available to meet those needs a combination of cash on hand, $2.1 billion of revolving credit facilities, of which just under $800 million is untapped, and additional borrowing capacity. Under previously-obtained Securities and Exchange Commission authority, Entergy Corporation may issue $500 million of new short-term debt and $1.9 billion of new long-term debt. Collectively, Entergy Arkansas, Entergy Gulf States, Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Mississippi may also issue in the aggregate close to $600 million of new short-term debt and over $2.6 billion of new long-term debt. On September 28, 2005, Entergy Gulf States issued through a private placement with Citicorp North American, Inc. $200 million Floating Rate Series of its first mortgage bonds to Citicorp North America, Inc. The bonds currently pay interest of 4.59 percent per annum, mature in October 2006, and are callable at Entergy Gulf States' option with five days notice at 100 percent of their face amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest. Additional statistics on Entergy subsidiaries impacted by the storm and details on restoration progress achieved to date are included in appendix A to this release. Entergy Investor Relations' new contact information in Clinton, Miss. is included in appendix B to this release. Entergy Corporation 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 in the United States. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of over $10 billion and approximately 14,000 employees. Appendix A provides Hurricane Rita & Katrina Outage Restoration Statistics. Appendix B provides new contact information for Entergy Investor Relations personnel in Clinton, Miss. Entergy's online address is http://www.entergy.com In this release and from time to time, Entergy makes statements concerning its expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, strategies, and future events or performance. Such statements are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although Entergy believes that these forward-looking statements and the underlying assumptions are reasonable, it cannot provide assurance that they will prove correct. Except to the extent required by federal securities laws, Entergy undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Some of those factors include, but are not limited to: resolution of pending and future rate cases and other proceedings at local and federal regulatory agencies, Entergy's ability to manage its operation and maintenance costs, particularly at its non-utility nuclear generating facilities, the performance of Entergy's generating plants, and particularly the capacity factor at its nuclear generating facilities, prices for power generated by Entergy's unregulated generating facilities, and the prices and availability of power Entergy must purchase for its utility customers, uncertainty regarding establishment of sites for spent nuclear fuel storage and disposal, Entergy's ability to develop and execute on a point of view regarding prices of electricity, natural gas, and other energy-related commodities, changes in the financial markets, particularly those affecting the availability of capital and Entergy's ability to refinance existing debt, execute its share repurchase program, and fund investments and acquisitions, actions of rating agencies, including changes in the ratings of debt and preferred stock, Entergy's ability to purchase and sell assets at attractive prices and on other attractive terms, changes in utility regulation and in regulation of the nuclear industry, the success of Entergy's strategies to reduce tax payments, the effects of litigation and weather, and uncertainties associated with efforts to remediate the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and recovery of costs associated with restoration including Entergy's ability to obtain financial assistance from governmental authorities in connection with these storms. 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