In our 100-year history of providing reliable and affordable power to Mississippians, no area has a chapter in our story like that of the Rex Brown Cooling Pond. The chapter, which we’ve officially finished by returning the property back to Jackson Public Schools, played a critical role in keeping the lights on for thousands of homes and businesses.
According to the National Hurricane Center’s latest forecast, Hurricane Francine will make landfall near Vermillion Bay as a Category 1 hurricane this afternoon. We anticipate this storm could have widespread impacts throughout our entire Entergy Mississippi service area and are watching to see how it may affect both our systems and our customers. We are prepared and want you to have a plan, too.
Across the nation, electricity demand forecasts are increasing, driven by economic development and our society’s ever-increasing dependency on technology. The growth opportunities we have before us in Mississippi rely on many key outcomes, but the one I’m most excited about is Entergy Mississippi’s ability to meet our customers’ needs. We’re going to do that, while continuing our commitment to build a better future by balancing power reliability and affordability for our customers.
Entergy Mississippi customers are very familiar with our company’s role: generating and transmitting power to their homes and businesses 24/7. What they may not know is that we bring more than just electricity to Mississippi. We bring jobs, too.
Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO, Entergy Mississippi addresses storm recoverynOver more than a week, Entergy Mississippi and our customers experienced an unprecedented series of severe storms, tornados and unusually high winds that caused the largest outage in our service area since Hurricane Katrina. This event saw scores of fast-moving storm cells with 80+ mph winds cutting a widespread path through our entire service area. This treacherous weather also came day-after-day, sometimes through the same areas repeatedly. The damage was so extensive that our power grid lost half as many poles, wires and transformers in one week as we lost from all storms in 2020, which was one of our worst storm years in recent history with four hurricanes and two tropical storms.
Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO, Entergy Mississippi, addresses storm recoverynOver more than a week, Entergy Mississippi and our customers experienced an unprecedented series of severe storms, tornados and unusually high winds that caused the largest outage in our service area since Hurricane Katrina. Scores of fast-moving storm cells with 80+ mph winds not only cut a widespread path through our entire service area, but came day-after-day, sometimes through the same areas. Our power grid lost half as many poles, wires and transformers to weather in one week as we lost in all 2020, which was one of our worst storm years ever with four hurricanes and two tropical storms.
A few years ago, Mississippi celebrated its bicentennial and this year Entergy Mississippi, formerly Mississippi Power & Light, recognizes our 100th anniversary. Our company has been a part of this state’s journey for almost half of its life.
Last week, I toured parts of the Entergy Mississippi service area that were devastated by the recent tornado outbreak, including Rolling Fork, Silver City and Winona. It was destruction that I have never seen in my time at Entergy or in my personal life as a Mississippian. It was an emotional day as I also met with families who have been left homeless, community leaders who are faced with the overwhelming task of rebuilding, and survivors who told heartbreaking stories of loved ones lost forever.
At Entergy Mississippi we think a lot about the future. Why? Because we are not only tasked by the State of Mississippi with providing you power today, but also with having plans in place to ensure you have safe, reliable and affordable power years from now.
As anyone who has gone to a grocery store lately knows, prices are continuing to go up. The same is true with the costs related to generating and delivering electricity. Because of this, we at Entergy Mississippi want to give customers the tools and resources needed to manage rising power bills.