Twenty years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, we are looking firmly to the future, accelerating investments to build a cleaner, more resilient energy grid for the 3 million customers we serve across four states.

The game-changing storms of 2005 marked the most difficult period in our company’s history, leaving 1.9 million customers without power and reshaping the way we prepare for severe weather. In the decades since, we have invested billions to strengthen infrastructure, modernize its grid and help communities bounce back faster after storms.

You’ll hear us say time and again, we’re stronger today because of where we’ve been. And we’ll continue to invest in our communities, our people and our grid so that the beloved places we call home are stronger than ever before.

Future-proof resiliency strategy

In 2021, following Hurricane Ida, we began to accelerate our resiliency strategy, largely to adapt to changing weather patterns that have brought more intense and frequent storms. At that time, we identified infrastructure to be hardened that amounted to $15 billion in investments – to be upgraded over a 10-year period to harden infrastructure. Such upgrades would help reduce power outages, place stronger poles designed for winds up to 150 mph, deploy vertical line construction that speeds repairs, and utilize advanced technology like self-healing networks that can reroute power automatically during outages.

Our operating companies have already seen results from initial hardening upgrades. In 2024, when Hurricane Francine swept through Louisiana, it paid off: Power stayed on for thousands of residents, enabling a much faster recovery. And in Texas, composite poles installed on the Bolivar Peninsula withstood Hurricane Beryl’s winds last summer with little to no maintenance required.

These efforts build on a hard-earned legacy of recovery, but with storms striking harder and more often, reinforcing our grid requires continuous focus. And we’re working now with the future in mind.

Phase one of Entergy Louisiana’s resilience plan — 2,100 projects reinforcing nearly 69,000 structures — is now underway, expected to avoid $1.2 billion in future storm costs. Entergy New Orleans has also begun strengthening the grid with 63 infrastructure improvement projects across the city scheduled for completion between 2025 and 2026. Entergy Texas was also approved by regulators early this year on their $137 million plan to upgrade their grid.

Resilience is about more than just stronger equipment. It’s about how quickly we recover, how safely our crews restore service, and how we give our customers confidence that we’ll be there no matter what the future brings.

For our Entergy teams, that means keeping pace with modern needs — balancing affordability, reliability and sustainability — while making sure our communities can weather the next several decades with strength.

Video series: Watch Episode 4, “Looking ahead”
This is the final episode in our anniversary series, throughout this month we’ve shared stories of reflection, resilience, preparation and perseverance through a series of videos. Watch Episode 4 here.