Entergy Power Outages New Orleans: Thousands Without Electricity—Live Updates, Restoration Timeline & Interactive Map

Thousands of Entergy customers across New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish are enduring a widespread power outage that began Sunday afternoon and rapidly spread city-wide. Entergy Louisiana and Entergy New Orleans confirmed they were “forced to initiate periodic power outages” after the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) ordered an emergency load-shed to stabilize regional generation capacity. Scope of the blackout • Peak impact: more than 100,000 meters offline, with the largest clusters in Uptown, Mid-City, Lakeview and parts of Metairie and Jefferson Parish. • Cause: one generator was down for routine maintenance when a second unit unexpectedly failed, leaving insufficient supply and triggering the MISO directive. • Estimated restoration: Entergy projects most customers will be re-energized by 7 p.m. local time; pockets with heavy equipment damage may extend into late evening. What residents should do now 1. Check the Entergy outage map or mobile app for real-time status updates and estimated times of restoration. 2. Turn off or unplug sensitive electronics to prevent surges when power returns. 3. Keep refrigerators and freezers closed; food remains safe for roughly 4 hours in an unopened fridge and 48 hours in a full freezer. 4. Avoid downed lines—assume all wires are live and report hazards to 1-800-9OUTAGE. 5. Conserve cellphone batteries by activating low-power mode and closing background apps; charging stations are available at select New Orleans Recreation Development (NORD) centers. Why rolling blackouts are becoming more common Energy analysts note that New Orleans sits at the edge of MISO’s South region, making the city vulnerable when generation shortfalls ripple through the grid. Aging natural-gas turbines, climate-driven heat waves that spike demand, and deferred maintenance have all compounded reliability risks. Entergy says it is fast-tracking a 128-MW solar project slated for 2026 and upgrading transmission lines over the Industrial Canal to add redundancy, but consumer watchdogs argue that more distributed rooftop solar and battery storage would reduce the need for forced outages. Financial relief and next steps • Residential customers experiencing outages longer than 24 hours can request bill adjustments through Entergy’s service guarantee program. • Small businesses may apply for emergency grants via the city’s Office of Economic Development once the outage window closes. • A public hearing with the New Orleans City Council Utilities Committee is scheduled for Wednesday to examine the incident and push for stricter performance benchmarks. Stay tuned for live updates as crews repair damaged feeders, weather permits aerial inspections, and MISO lifts the load-shed order. Entergy advises residents to prepare for possible additional rolling outages should extreme heat return later this week.