BATON ROUGE — Power restoration from Hurricane Zeta is well underway in Louisiana.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards says 469,000 homes and businesses remained without power mid-morning on Thursday. That’s down from a peak of 531,000 outages in the state.
Edwards did not give a timeline for full restoration, but says recovery work should be easier because the heaviest damage was to utility poles and other distribution lines, rather than the primary transmission hubs.
Louisiana is prioritizing power restoration from Hurricane Zeta to polling places and local elections offices to prepare for Election Day. Early voting ended Tuesday, so Zeta hasn’t disrupted any voting so far.
Edwards says the secretary of state’s office and local elections officials will notify voters ahead of Election Day if any polling sites will be unavailable and changes to balloting locations are made.
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Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards says officials are still assessing the extent of Zeta’s damage across the southeastern parishes.
Edwards says there appears to be “catastrophic damage” on the barrier island of Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish. He says Zeta punched three breaches in the levee on the island, the only levee failures from the storm in Louisiana.
The governor says repairs are being expedited, and pumps onsite are working to drain water from the area, where most houses are raised several feet in the air on pilings.
The extent of the damage at Grand Isle remains unclear because the only highway onto the island was blocked with debris. Edwards says he ordered the Louisiana National Guard to assist with search and rescue efforts, including door-to-door checks on property.
Edwards planned a flyover of the area Thursday, along with stops in several areas to visit with parish officials.
