Entergy 2005 Annual Report Download - page 7

ENTERGY CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES 2005
Our darkest moment. Our finest hour. It’s hard
to imagine a scenario more catastrophic
than the actual events of last year. It’s equally
hard to imagine a response more inspiring than that
delivered by our exceptional employees.
At Entergy, we pride ourselves on our customer
service, our safe and efficient operations, our well-
maintained infrastructure, and our thoughtful plans
and strategies. We believe our employees are well-
prepared and capable of responding to whatever comes
our way – whether it’s an abrupt change in market
conditions or weather.
In 2005, two storms unprecedented in strength and
size tested our company and our employees to their
very limits. Not only did our employees respond
brilliantly, they demonstrated the enormous potential
that exists in each of us when called upon to serve a
cause that is right and dear to our hearts and minds.
CATASTROPHE TIMES TWO
On August 29, Hurricane Katrina stormed ashore near
Buras, Louisiana, southeast of New Orleans. A strong
Category 3 storm of unprecedented physical size,
Katrina leveled much of a 400-mile section of
coastline stretching from central Louisiana, across
Mississippi, into Alabama and western Florida; and
devastated the city of New Orleans. With damage
estimates topping $75 billion, Katrina ranks as the
costliest natural disaster in U.S. history; and with
more than 1,300 lives lost, it was also one of the
deadliest. More than one million of our customers in
Louisiana and Mississippi lost power and extensive
flooding in New Orleans left the city and our
headquarters offices uninhabitable.
When the storm passed, our employees began the
arduous work of restoring power. As a company, we
worked through the issues – no communications
capability, fuel shortages, severe flooding, and security
threats. As individuals, many of our employees also
dealt with overwhelming personal loss – families split
apart, homes damaged or destroyed, and in too many
cases the loss of a loved one. Thanks to their focus,
commitment, and hard work, in just 16 days, we had
restored power to 85 percent of customers who could
take power in their homes and businesses. Then, on
September 24 came Rita.
Making landfall in Sabine Pass, Texas, Hurricane
Rita caused massive damage to our
infrastructure in Louisiana and
Texas – knocking 14 generation
units offline and damaging more than 3,800 miles
of transmission lines. More than 800,000 customers
lost power.
When the storm passed, our employees – exhausted
both mentally and physically – were faced with
another enormous restoration effort and a wholly
different set of issues. All transmission connections
from Louisiana west to Texas were severed, making
restoration much more difficult. In addition, several
refineries with an aggregate capacity of 2.27 million
barrels of crude oil per day lost power. Considered
vital to the U.S. economy, restoration was urgent and
had to be coordinated with each customer as well as
the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security.
“We are proud to serve with these
people – our employees, our heroes.”
Randy Helmick (left),
Vice President of Transmission
and our official “storm boss”,
led our storm restoration
efforts with outstanding results.
He is congratulated here by
Bob Luft (right), Chairman,
and Wayne Leonard (center),
Chief Executive Officer.
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– Wayne Leonard, Entergy CEO