Oct 10 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Perryn Keys The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas

Entergy Texas has restored power to nearly 250,000 customers in less than three weeks since Hurricane Rita came ashore. But now comes the hard part.

Although Entergy expects to have "the vast majority of people back with power by the end of the week," spokesman Dave Caplan said, reaching and repairing lines for the remaining powerless customers will be the most difficult part of the company's rebuilding task.

As of Sunday afternoon, roughly 40,000 customers were still in the dark -- a tiny number compared to the 286,000 who were affected when Rita came ashore Sept. 24, wiping out the electric grid serving Southeast Texas.

But the last 40,000 are in hard-to-reach places, tucked away in rural areas or surrounded by path-blocking trees and fragile property.

"From Day 1, trees have been our main obstacle here," Caplan said. "It's either the trees that are in our way or the damage they've done to the distribution lines."

On Sunday, crews were shifting from other areas to help with repairs in the Woodville area. About 60 percent of Wildwood was back in service with complete restoration targeted for today.

Crews also continued to restore power in Fannett, Hull, Daisetta, Batson, Saratoga, Hardin, Winnie and Mauriceville.

In Beaumont, for instance, work continues in neighborhoods with back-lot service and other pockets where customers were still in the dark. In areas where distribution lines run behind houses, huge cranes and specialized equipment were lifting poles over houses in an effort to speed the repair process.

"We can get bulldozers and heavier equipment out to the places with lots of trees," Caplan said. "In the cities with back lots, the challenge is to get the equipment back there. It's not possible to use bulldozers because we'd be tearing up people's property."

Still, progress was visible in many areas Sunday, as more than 7,000 customers received electricity for the first time.

Entergy expected repairs in Orange's downtown area to be "basically completed" by today, according to a company news release.

Most areas of Bridge City should also have power by Tuesday.

Work continued in all Port Arthur neighborhoods and commercial areas, as well as residential neighborhoods in Mid-County.

Crews continued working west on Texas 105, trying to restore power to the Pinewood, Countrywood Estates and Bevil Oaks areas.

"Our other challenge is that the farther out we get, fewer people are farther apart," Caplan said. "What it means is that we're basically doing the same amount of work to repair fewer customers."

Elsewhere, more than two-thirds of Jasper-Newton Electric Cooperative's customers remained without power Sunday.

The cooperative's general manager Fred Solly said progress continued to be made to get electricity service restored and more crews are on the way.

As of Saturday night, there were almost 5,800 meters back on, which is about 28 percent, he said.

Power has now been restored to all the cooperative's substations except Deweyville, which was expected to be connected sometime Sunday.

Solly said more crews are arriving to help with the restoration process.

There were about 475 line workers working with the Kirbyville-based cooperative, with that number expected to reach about 500 after Monday, he said.

Efforts to return evacuees home also continued Sunday.

Jefferson County Judge Carl Griffith said 95 people were expected to arrive in Beaumont by bus from DeLeon on Sunday evening.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has identified 2,100 Jefferson County evacuees in shelters throughout Texas and Louisiana, Griffith said.

Officials hope to bring up to 300 people a day home, he said.

Firefighters are first checking the homes of those residents to make sure conditions are livable, Griffith said. On Sunday, Beaumont firefighter checked 150 homes and found 16 of them uninhabitable.

Griffith said it could take two weeks to get all evacuees bused home.

 

Jacqueline Lane and Beth Gallaspy contributed to this report.