New Orleans, U.S.A. — Hurricane Isaac’s high winds and slow trek through southeastern Louisiana have caused extensive outages to Entergy’s power grid. As of 5 a.m. Wednesday, 409,000 customers were without electricity in Louisiana.

Isaac came ashore in Plaquemines Parish at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. Its slow crawl along coastal Louisiana parishes caused high winds and rain squalls to continually pound southeastern Louisiana throughout the night. The storm’s high winds are lingering in south Louisiana, causing the restoration process to be delayed. Crews are not able to hit the streets in full force until the winds are below 30 mph.

“Isaac is testing everyone’s patience with its slow movement through south Louisiana,” said Bill Mohl, Entergy Louisiana, LLC president and CEO. “We are ready to mount a counterattack to Isaac’s onslaught just as soon as the weather conditions allow us to do so.”

Entergy spent the past several days amassing a workforce of more than 4,000 company and contract workers to respond to Isaac’s aftermath. Very early assessments indicate the company will be facing a range of rebuilding and restoration challenges, including debris damage, downed power lines and significant damage due to trees falling on equipment and taking down power lines.

“Isaac is not done in Louisiana,” Mohl said. “It continues to move through the state with its high winds causing power outages in its wake. We’ll start restoring power where and when we can and move resources across the state as needed.”

The company continues to urge everyone to be safe, including customers and Entergy personnel and contractors. Stay away from downed power lines as well as flooded areas. Do not walk in standing water and do not venture into areas of debris since you may not be able to see a power line that could still be energized and dangerous.

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, including more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation’s leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.

Image Courtesy of  PBS News Hour

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Washington, U.S.A. — The American Red Cross had more than 55 shelters open with as many as 1,180 overnight residents Saturday, June 30 from California to the east coast as people sought relief from the soaring temperatures, wildfires in the west and this week’s massive flooding in Florida.

“The Red Cross is helping people who have no power during this dangerous heat wave while continuing to feed and shelter people impacted by the wildfires out west and flooding in Florida,” said Charley Shimanski, senior vice president, Red Cross Disaster Services. “We urge people to stay safe and follow the direction of local officials during these emergencies.”

Power outage

Millions are still without power after Friday’s strong storms and officials say it could be several days until electricity is restored in some areas. The Red Cross is operating shelters and supporting numerous cooling centers in West Virginia, Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Indiana, Kentuckyand Ohio, as well as in and around Washington, D.C. More than 900 people spent Saturday night in Red Cross and community shelters due to the power outages.

If someone needs to find a Red Cross shelter they can go to www.redcross.org or access the free Red Cross phone app. Both are refreshed with updated information every 30 minutes. People can also watch local media reports to find out where shelters are located.

Safety Tips

If a community is without power, people should check on those who are alone or more likely to be affected by the heat. They should also make sure animals have plenty of water and a shady place to rest. Many people are resorting to generator power. They should connect the equipment they want powered directly to the generator outlets, and never connect a generator to the home’s electrical system.

• While the power is out, people should keep their refrigerator and freezer closed as much as possible. If the refrigerator remains closed, it can keep food cold for about four hours. A full freezer can hold its temperature for about two days if the door remains closed.
• People should turn appliances and electrical equipment off and unplug them, leaving one light on to know when the power is restored.
• Those affected should travel only if necessary. Traffic lights are out and roads will be congested.

Wildfires

As wildfires continue to scorch several states out west, more than 200 people spent Saturday night in 12 Red Cross shelters in Colorado, Utah and Montana. Hundreds of Red Cross disaster workers are providing people with a safe place to stay, food to eat and emotional support. Red Cross workers are focused on providing emotional support and mental health services to families as they wait to learn about damage to their homes.

Florida Flooding

Almost 75 people in Florida are staying in Red Cross shelters as communities clean up after the massive flooding from Debby. Several hundred disaster workers and a fleet of emergency response vehicles are providing safe shelter, warm meals and distributing relief supplies like flashlights, work gloves, rakes, shovels and tarps.

Image Courtesy of  Cesar Rodriguez/American Red Cross 

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To contradict Shakespeare, 2012 was not the winter of discontent — it may go down as the year without a winter at all in many parts of the country, and you can blame —  or praise — the jet stream, says a Texas A&M University climate expert.

John Nielsen-Gammon, professor atmospheric sciences who also serves as state climatologist, says upper level dynamics this year were unusual and the resulting change in the jet stream — a river of air that influences weather patterns — is the likely culprit.

“The jet stream follows a different average course each year, and the end results this time were warmer temperatures,” he explains.

“This is a La Nina year (when water temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean are lower than normal), but the atmosphere did not respond to La Nina in the normal way,” adds the Texas A&M professor who has studied weather patterns for years. Nielsen-Gammon points to another, less well-known factor, the North Atlantic Oscillation, as an important cause of the unusual weather.

“The jet stream in the North Atlantic often gets locked into either a southern route or a northern route,” Nielsen-Gammon explains. “The last two winters, it was the southern route. This year, it was the northern route, bringing the central and eastern United States warm air masses as the air traveled from south to north.”

One key question might be: Does this mean we should expect another warmer- than- normal summer?

“Not necessarily,” Nielsen-Gammon reports.

“Right now, the Climate Prediction Center’s outlooks show a tendency towards a warmer than usual summer across much of the United States, but a lot depends on the rain between now and then. More rain would mean cooler weather because the moisture keeps temperatures lower. We should know more about the summer outlook in the next few weeks. Certainly March has already had some very warm temperatures all over the country.”

Last week, more than 1,700 records were set for high temperatures from coast to coast, with many cities, such as Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C., posting readings almost 20 degrees above normal.

“The good news locally is that rains in central and eastern Texas have eased the drought situation considerably, and lakes and reservoirs and filling back up,” the Texas A&M researcher reports. “More and more of the state is getting out of extreme drought status. But there are still large parts of west and southTexas that are very dry.”

The bad news is that the warmer weather means many people are suffering from allergies sooner than ever because pollen from plants and trees is out sooner, and there is more of it, he adds. Also, the warmer weather could mean more insects in the weeks to come.

“But I think it’s worth all that just to get to experience the beauty of Texas wildflowers,” says Nielsen-Gammon.

For more news about Texas A&M University, go to http://tamutimes.tamu.edu.

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