[Vision2020] Progress in the South

[Burt Sid]

No blame game here....  Note the details of the logistics:

some suppliers are afraid to make deliveries


Not the guberments fault!



Things are pretty hectic.  Out corporate office is one block from the
Super Dome.  Many of our business ops have been moved to Jackson MS. 
In Mississippi, 75% or our customers were without power.  Due to the
extent of the damage, we have refugees all through the state.

One of our plants is just west of New Orleans and some suppliers are
afraid to make deliveries.  We are still looking for some of our
employees and their families.  I almost feel guilty sending out email.
 I am very fortunate to have my power and phone service back.  Some
people in my town will go for weeks without power if they live in more
rural areas.  I live just outside the city limits, so at least got
power back within a couple of days.  It is very hard to get gas. 
People are panicking.  With all that said, it could be worse than
living in a place like Mississippi where people are very gracious and
kind to each other all the time, especially in crisis situations.

---

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/05/D8CEF3SO0.html

Utilities Making Progress Restoring Power
Sep 05 9:33 PM US/Eastern
 
By STEVE QUINN
Associated Press Writer

JACKSON, Miss.

Three utility companies that experience widespread Hurricane Katrina
power outages reported progress Monday in restoring service to
customers. But more than 800,000 customers still were without power,
one week after Hurricane Katrina struck.

Entergy Corp. said it has restored service to more than half of the
1.1 million customers that lost power. Another 517,000 Entergy
residential and business customers still have no power, mostly in
Louisiana.

The Electric Power Association of Mississippi, a member-owned
association akin to a credit union, said that more about 222,000 of
its customers still remain in the dark.

Southern Co., whose utility subsidiaries serve customers in
Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, said it restored power to about 44
percent of its Mississippi customers, leaving about 80,000 still to be
reconnected.

Crews from more than 20 states and some Canadian provinces have joined
local workers to bring power back to the hardest hit areas of
Mississippi and Louisiana.

The companies say it could take months to restore service to some
areas, especially those still underwater.

Restoration priorities typically go to areas of public safety such as
hospitals, police stations and fire and rescue buildings. From there,
companies try to resume the largest blocks of customers at one time.

Entergy made progress in restoring power to the New Orleans business
and warehouse districts, which have several hotels, said company
spokesman Arthur Wiese. At the same time, the chief of police in New
Orleans called on all residents to leave the city on Monday, declaring
it to be destroyed.

"We are working to get more lights on New Orleans proper," he said.
"There aren't many relatively accessible areas and we are quickly
running into the limits of what can be easily turn on in that area."

Entergy is also one of the displaced. It announced over the weekend
plans to move most of its headquarters operations form New Orleans to
Clinton, Miss., to a corporate campus where WorldCom Inc. used to be
located before its 2002 collapse.

The four-building campus already serves as an encampment for
lineworkers. Soon Entergy's executives will temporarily occupy several
floors in two buildings, Wiese said.

Wiese said the company will distribute its 1,400-person, New Orleans
workforce to offices in Houston and Beaumont, Texas; Little Rock,
Ark., and Clinton.

"The big thing is who has got a house to go back to," Wiese said. "We
will try to accommodate them in any way we can. If we can, we'll let
some telecommute."