Entergy work crews were run out of at least one Baton Rouge neighborhood by threats of violence Tuesday when they arrived to restore power to the area, according to Entergy spokesperson Amber Ferchaud. Some 5,000 Entergy customers in East Baton Rouge Parish who lost power in Monday’s severe thunderstorms remain in the dark this morning, and among the reasons some customers still lack service is because of threats of violence, she says.
“We encountered incidents in one Baton Rouge neighborhood with violence … our linemen were run out of the neighborhood,” Ferchaud says. “It’s something our linemen periodically encounter. People get upset. It’s not the first time this has happened.”
Ferchaud could not say in which neighborhood the threats occurred or how many customers in that area were affected. But work crews will return to the neighborhood today with a police escort, she says.
Baton Rouge Police Department Spokesman Lt. Johnny Dunnam says the incident occurred when two Entergy employees surveying damaged power lines near Maplewood Drive in the Glen Oaks area were threatened by some neighborhood residents.
“As a precaution we have extra duty officers who, on occasion help Entergy when they work in a neighborhood, so Entergy will have the extra duty officers there to help them today,” Dunnam says.
Baton Rouge’s 5,000 customers without power represent about the half the total number of Entergy customers statewide still in the dark. Ferchaud says Baton Rouge was the state’s hardest hit area during the storm, with more damage and outages than even New Orleans.
Threats of violence notwithstanding, the city’s many old trees are the main reason some customers still remain without power, Ferchaud says. She estimates almost all customers will be back online by Friday.
