Power Outages Spread In Northeast Louisiana

While many were inside trying to avoid the rain Friday, Entergy crews were out in the weather all afternoon working to restore power in Northeast Louisiana. With no lights and no TV, many people had to find resourceful ways to spend their afternoon. Patrice Newsome passes by a crew of Entergy workers in her neighborhood and yells, “Do you know how long before the power comes back on?” Thats what many people were wondering after severe weather rolled through Friday morning knocking out the power to more than 15,000 Entergy customers in Northeast Louisiana. For Newsome and her daughter Amaya the wait wont be long. It took the crew about twenty minutes to have power back to her neighborhood. “I heard it wasnt going to be until 9 o’clock tonight, so I wanted to confirm that because I was going to get on the road and go to Grambling or something." Newsome says they slept through the storm Friday morning but quickly left when they woke up in a house without lights. “Its scary in there and she doesnt like the dark, so we just got in the car and been riding around ever since." However others in the area werent fortunate enough to take a joyride. They say the power outage is a major inconvenience. “It bothers me because I need to go to work and I’m not going to be able to go to work," said Felicia Bethley who was also without power in Monroe. She says she couldnt leave her fifteen year old to watch the other four children in the dark so now they made other plans for the evening. "Were probably going to end up leaving and going to my mothers house because were not going to be able to stay here." Entergy officials say theyve got power on for most of their customers. They expect some parts of Jonesboro and Winnfield will be without power until early Saturday morning. (Copyright 2008, NBC 10/ Fox 14 News, Written by Casey Ferrand)