The company that provides electricity to the New Orleans area says it will be able to restore power to the "vast majority" of people in the city by Wednesday evening.
In an update Tuesday evening, Entergy New Orleans estimated that the vast majority of its customers in New Orleans Parish would have power restored by "late evening" on Sept. 8.
However, the company also noted that some customers who live east of the city in Orleans Parish might not have their power restored until Sept. 29 — three weeks from Wednesday.
Much of New Orleans has been without power since Ida made landfall as a Major Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 29. Even 10 days after landfall, PowerOutage.us reports that more than 300,000 people in Louisiana are still without electricity.
Earlier this week, Entergy Louisiana reported that Hurricane Ida had inflicted more damage on the state's power grid than any other hurricane in state history. That includes all the damage inflicted by Hurricanes Katrina (2005), Delta (2020) and Zeta (2020) combined. The company says it will need to replace 24,000 electricity poles that were damaged by the storm.
Electrical crews have faced challenges accessing roads in the area due to fallen debris. They're also facing logistical challenges presented by the state's unique landscape, including marshlands, swamps and waterways.
