KEY TAKEAWAYS: Over 5,000 Louisiana customers remained without power Monday afternoon. Most outages were in North Louisiana, with Ouachita Parish hardest hit. Utilities report extensive grid damage, including poles, wires, and transformers. Entergy expected most remaining outages to be restore d by Monday night.   Slightly more than 5,000 utility customers remained without electricity Monday afternoon following the second blast of frigid, Arctic air to envelop Louisiana in a week’s time, with the possibility that some people have been without power for nine days. Outage figures from FindEnergy.com showed 5,042 customers did not have electricity as of late Monday afternoon, nearly all of them in North Louisiana where icy conditions have limited the ability of utility crews to restore power quickly. More than half of the outages are in Ouachita Parish. Power problems for the region began Jan. 25 when a polar jet stream pushed Arctic winds, snow and freezing rain far down into Louisiana and other parts of the country that seldom see such cold weather. Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency ahead of the first wave of subfreezing weather, which has claimed nine lives in Louisiana, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. The number of customers without power climbed past 111,000 a week ago, and utilities deployed roughly 4,000 workers to handle the crisis. Entergy Louisiana estimates about 90% of its impacted meters have been restored, but the company is encountering problems with some of the remaining outages. In a news release from Sunday, Entergy said crews have had to repair some lines multiple times because trees and utility poles continue to fall long after the storm has passed. “In some cases, dozens of poles must be replaced to restore service to a relatively small number of customers, extending restoration timelines despite continued progress,” Entergy said in its news release. In the unincorporated Warden area of Richland Parish, crews have to replace 75 utility poles to restore power to 110 customers, according to Entergy. The work will take roughly 20 crews working for about a day and a half to complete. Entergy crews report widespread damage to the power grid, including nearly 1,000 utility poles, more than 500 miles of wire and 210 transformers in need of repair or replacement. Last week, Entergy anticipated most of its restoration work would be done by Jan. 31. But the second wave of Arctic air prevented ice from thawing in the region. Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, D-Bossier City, will ask his colleagues to authorize an after-action review of the mass outages and how utility companies might better prepare for future storms, said Joe Shyne, the commissioner’s chief of staff. Entergy anticipates it will have most of the outages restored by Monday night, according to Shyne. ...read more read less