Louisiana's biggest utility provider falls 4% after 'catastrophic' damage from Hurricane Ida leaves more than 1 million without power

• Entergy fell as much as 4% after Hurricane Ida knocked out power for more than 1.1 million of its customers.
• The largest utility in Louisiana said all of its eight transmission lines supply New Orleans are down.
• Officials expect the power outage in New Orleans to last for days, if not longer.
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Entergy, Louisiana's largest utility company, fell as much as 4% on Monday after Hurricane Ida knocked out power for more than 1.1 million of its customers and caused "catastrophic transmission damage."

Most of the power outages were concentrated in New Orleans, according to an outage map provided by the company. Of Entergy's eight transmission lines that supply the city with power, all of them were down as of Monday afternoon, and one of them fell into the Mississippi River.

In an update call on Monday, Entergy indicated that they expect the power outage in New Orleans and beyond to last for days, if not weeks. While repairing the downed transmission lines could be a quick fix, clearing debris and reconnecting individual homes to the grid could take far longer.

This isn't the first hurricane to damage Entergy's power infrastructure. In 2020, Hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Zeta caused billions of dollars in damage to Entergy's grid. According to a note from BMO analyst James Thalacker, Hurricane Ida "could not have come at a worst time for the company."

But Thalacker believes Entergy does have the financial flexibility to deal with the damage from Ida, thanks to the utility company's "historically good track record of storm recovery" and its strong credit rating and liquidity position.