BATON ROUGE, La (WGNO) — We’re no strangers to severe weather in south Louisiana. With more than a dozen named storms predicted this year, Entergy Louisiana and Entergy New Orleans are gearing up for the upcoming hurricane season by hosting their annual pre-season preparedness drills before the first storm cuts power.

“It’s an essential part of everyone’s life in the city, and we understand that. We’re going to make sure that our neighbors are safe and they get the service that they deserve,” said VP of reliability for Entergy Louisiana Steven Benyard.

Throughout the two-day event, Entergy crews will perform a simulated response to the days leading up to and following a major hurricane.
“They’ll have to make decisions on, how do we deploy resources? Where do we deploy them? How do we set things up? And they’ll have to make strategic decisions, our folks will be evaluating them based on those decisions, because look, in order to get the power restored quickly and safely after a storm, it’s a very methodical process,” said Spokesperson for Entergy Louisiana David Freese.

The mobile command center is one of the newest additions to its tool belt. The RV-style vehicle allows the energy company to deploy teams into damaged areas and establish a communication base.

Doing these simulations each year helps Entergy determine response areas needing improvement. They say that kind of preparation is vital, which everyone should be doing now.

“Take care of your loved ones, your family, and friends during these events, and what that means is having an emergency kit, medicines, personal documents, and phone chargers are very important as well,” said Benyard.