Ida Aftermath: How New Orleans, JP went into the dark

The devastating loss of power across the whole New Orleans area is being traced back to the failure of 8 Entergy transmission lines.

[jm.inc]

Look at the tower it has so much rust on the lower half the catwalk and ladders look great but the rust. Paint and real inspection needed. This didn't fall over the leg still standing shows it tore away from the tower frame. Lack of maintenance is the reason that tower came down. The inspection the c.e.o. must be speaking of is a "personal safe work area" inspection... you know to safely preform maintenance.

[brianminkc]

Anyone can see that tower has pretty severe rust. It was not well maintained

[kansasistheman]

They absolutely can “harden” existing infrastructure. It’s their job to ensure their entire power grid isn’t susceptible to single-point failure. It doesn’t matter if that tower is 20 years old or 2 years old.

[drexelmildraff]

That tower looks like a rickety piece of crap (I use to teach engineering students at the college level). The Entergy CEO needs to be investigated by the authorities, and face jail time if found guilty of criminal negligence .

[robvannNS]

looks like a lot of rust on that tower..hmmm.

[hmskld]

Why aren't the highly paid energy folks at the podium explaining "in detail" how they are expediting recovery for citizens?

[daniiizamar]

So no critical electricity for the sick at home? Rotting food? No emergency services? Hold these inspectors liable for the struggling Americans and deaths that result in their behalf.

[maryreynolds]

Maybe they should bury the transmission lines. It would be expensive, but it's important to have resilient power systems.

[danteallen]

I wonder how long it will take to replace it and get power restored

[michaelross]

Um he needs to be fired... asap.. for neglect. And failure to maintain something so essential.. fire em

[kanank]

the tower should have been designed to withstand 300 miles per hour windspeed. Didn't all these engineers know that hurricanes are becoming more and more powerful and didn't they think about engineering something that will last 50 some years?

[LeighMichelle]

What hadn't this Tower been replaced look at the Rust at the bottom where is all the money going

[rilakrilak]

how much air can a frame tower even catch ?

[TheRealZJE]

That Tower looked it all rusty and s***

[JohnDoe-ltsg]

Classic side-stepping answer, the president of that company could be a politician. It's lip service. Sure, the tower withstood Katrina back in 2005. Has that tower been refreshed since that storm 20 whole years ago? Quite a bit of surface rust on it. I'm not impressed. At 3:46 the president even recommends in the future for "more robust foundations" so they don't fall over, but at 0:56 you can clearly see the concrete foundations and the tower foundations are still intact. The tower buckled where the vertical span joins the horizontal base. This is all lip service, it doesn't matter if the tower passed inspection lately, who does the inspections? Their company. To what standards are they held? Not high enough, look at the state of rust on that tower, quality industrial coatings last 15+ years this tower was way behind in rust abatement. It's doubly sad when you consider that the very design of the tower lets wind cut right through it and not apply nearly the same forces as a building withstands. If you pause the video at 3:33 and look towards the left of frame you can see a snapped support beam that clearly had metal failure and you can see that it does not appear to be merely surface rust. That entire section is heavily rusted and very possibly contributed to the failure. Coincidentally they are also discussing how now, because of how critical these lines are, now the taxpayers are going to foot the bill for a new power station and "beefier" upgrade towers so this won't happen again. So if John Doe on Youtube can put this together why isn't the media asking the real questions? LIke, were these towers, which they knew were super critical to the local grid as we are finding out now, were they allowed to be in a state of disrepair because, well if they don't fail, good, and if they do fail we get new towers for free from Uncle Sam? Tell me I'm wrong and inform me how please.

[Susanonwow]

I’ve hiked transmission corridors in the middle of nowhere in Canada and I’ve never seen a tower in such a disreputable state. I don’t get this. What the heck people?

[obits]

FYI - Ida hit 150 mph winds. Maybe you should up your standards to 200 mph winds? I would think you don’t want to stress critical infrastructure at 100%, but that’s just my armchair analysis.

[fumiyama]

The inspectors had too many beer before diagnosing the tower

[alphega]

It might have been hit by a tornado during Hurricane Ida

[pauletteleggett]

This is crazy, learn from OKI …. They don’t lose power, please change this way of living . Change this please