New Orleans, Louisiana Power Outage Today

How reliable is Entergy New Orleans service in New Orleans?

Entergy New Orleans is an investor-owned utility with 211,631 customers. In 2024 its customers averaged 2 interruptions and 586 minutes (about 9.8 hours) without power, so the average outage lasted about 4.9 hours.

About 69% of that time came on major event days, the severe-weather days that utilities report separately. On ordinary days the average falls to 180 minutes. A handful of severe-weather days, not everyday faults, set this utility’s year.

The long average outage is the notable figure: when the lights went out for Entergy New Orleans customers, they stayed out for about 4.9 hours on average, which is long enough to spoil refrigerated food and strain medical needs.

For comparison, Louisiana as a whole averaged 728 minutes and the United States 614 minutes. That puts Entergy New Orleans below the state average, which is better.

Among the 15 utilities in Louisiana with at least 5,000 customers that report to the federal government, Entergy New Orleans ranks 8th for the fewest outage minutes (1 is best). Nationally, 18% of the 926 utilities of that size reported more outage minutes in 2024.

These are the figures the utility itself reported to the US Energy Information Administration (Form EIA-861, 2024) and describe the whole service territory, not one street. Your own address can be better or worse.

Storm season and outages in New Orleans

NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 238 storm reports for Orleans Parish from 2015 through 2026, most often flash flood (174), thunderstorm wind (46), tornado (8), and hail (6). The busiest full year was 2025 with 61 reports and the quietest was 2016 with 4, so the risk changes a lot from one year to the next.

Reports peak in May (57 since 2015), followed by April and July. October is outside those three months, so an outage now is less likely to be weather-related.

NOAA’s own narratives name power outages in 4 storm episodes in Orleans Parish since 2015, most often in June. That count is a floor, since the database records outages only when a spotter or agency mentions them.

What the most common storm types in New Orleans do to the grid:

• Flash flood. Floodwater reaches ground-level transformers, meters and low-lying substations. Utilities may shut power off ahead of the water on purpose, and wading near flooded equipment can electrocute.
• Thunderstorm wind. Straight-line wind pushes trees and limbs into distribution lines. These outages are usually local, a street or a neighborhood at a time, and crews clear them circuit by circuit.
• Tornado. A tornado destroys poles and lines along its path. Repairs there mean rebuilding rather than reconnecting, so restoration takes days instead of hours.

Storm reports that name New Orleans

Within Orleans Parish, 99 NOAA storm reports since 2015 name New Orleans as their location or in their description: flash flood (67), thunderstorm wind (22), tornado (4), and hail (2). That is about 42% of the county’s reports, so New Orleans accounts for much of the county’s storm history. Reports naming New Orleans are most common in May. The busiest full year was 2024 with 16. These reports record 3 injuries in total.

Who a power outage hits hardest in New Orleans

61.4% of occupied homes in New Orleans are heated with electricity (US 41.3%). In a winter outage those homes lose heat the moment the power fails, and electric furnaces and heat pumps are too large to run from a portable generator. Warm layers, blankets and a plan for where to stay matter more here than in a gas-heated city.

Residents aged 65 or older are 17.2% of the population in New Orleans, close to the US share of 17.2% and 14.4% report a disability (US 13.3%). These are the households most likely to depend on powered medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, CPAP machines and refrigerated medicine. If someone in your home does, ask Entergy New Orleans whether it keeps a priority or medical-needs list, and register before the next storm rather than during it.

About the housing: 60.5% of the housing in New Orleans was built before 1970 (US 35.5%), and older neighborhoods often have overhead service lines and mature trees close to the wires, which makes them more exposed to storm outages; 48.8% of households rent (US 34.8%), so many residents depend on a landlord to restore building systems and cannot add a generator or battery themselves.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 (housing, heating fuel, age and disability tables).

Backup power and electricity use in New Orleans

The average Entergy New Orleans home used about 1,042 kWh a month in 2024 (US average 892 kWh), an average draw of 1.4 kW around the clock, and paid about 13.0 cents per kWh (11.7 in the state, 15.8 nationally), roughly $136 a month.

Keeping only the essentials on (a refrigerator, router, a few lights and phone chargers, about 400 watts) through an outage that lasts the average about 4.9 hours takes about 2.0 kWh. A portable power station in the 1 to 3 kWh range covers part of that, and a small inverter generator covers all of it.

A generator must never run indoors, in a garage or near a window; generator and food-safety rules are in the power outage guide linked below.

If the power is out in New Orleans

About 383,997 people live in New Orleans, the largest of the 5 Louisiana cities on this site. Report the outage to the utility so a ticket exists for your address, then check Entergy New Orleans’s outage map for an estimate. If neighbors have power and you do not, report it again: the fault may be on the line to your house alone, which is a separate repair.

New Orleans power outage map

Entergy New Orleans’s outage map has the official restoration estimate for your address; the count above comes from residents. Food and generator safety: power outage guide.

New Orleans power outage questions