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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Some residents in Louisiana are still recovering from the damage left by Hurricane Ida.

It has been 23 days since the hurricane made landfall and in that time, Entergy has restored power to most customers.

According to Entergy, there are “approximately 15,000 still without power, but the vast majority of that is in the lowest-lying areas of our service territory: Lafourche Parish and Grand Isle. The reason for that is the damage we’ve seen in those areas is requiring an entire rebuild of the system, not just a restoration.”

Entergy says that help came from 41 states including 26,000 workers.

Those workers have replaced “over 30,000 poles, over 36,000 spans of wire and nearly 6,000 transformers.”

Hurricane Ida is not the only costly storm that Entergy has had to deal with recently.

The 2020 storm season was one to remember as Hurricane Laura barreled through the state in August of that year.

Along with Hurricane Laura, Hurricane Delta, Hurricane Zeta, and a winter storm all required Entergy to deal with power issues. The rebuilding of systems and restoration of power during all of these storms is costly.

If the Louisiana Public Service Commission gives the the go-ahead, all Entergy customers could see an added charge on their bill.

What would that charge be for Entergy customers?

According to Entergy, the average residential customer would see an increase of $5 a month on their bill for the next 15 years.

That added charge would help pay for the repair work done by Entergy during all of these storms, according to The Advocate.

When asked about the possibility of customers having to pay for the 2020 storm recovery, Entergy said, “There are currently no charges on customer bills for the 2020 storm season. Those filings are currently with the Louisiana Public Service Commission for review and approval. While customers did see an increase due to higher-than-normal fuel charges stemming from the winter storm, those have fallen off of bills as of August. Additionally, the charges for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were completed in 2018 with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike scheduled to finish in August 2022. Even with these charges, Entergy Louisiana customers have seen some of the lowest rates in the country over the past decade.”

For now, Entergy customers are in a wait and see mode while members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission decide whether to give the green light to the surcharge.