HOUSTON – CenterPoint Energy is stepping up to help support the people of Louisiana that have lost power due to what is now Tropical Storm Ida.
More than 200 CenterPoint employees and contractors have departed for Louisiana to help Entergy Louisiana and Cleco Corporate Holdings with power restoration efforts.
CenterPoint partners with other utilities in mutual assistance agreements to lend a hand during widespread power outage emergencies.
LIVE BLOG: Ida weakens to a tropical storm, causes massive power outages in New Orleans
Over the years, crews have restored power to hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the country who were left in the dark following hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.
Hurricane Ida knocked out power to all of New Orleans and inundated coastal Louisiana communities through the Gulf Coast Sunday.
RELATED: These cameras show what it looks like as Hurricane Ida moves over Louisiana
Forecasters warned of damaging winds, heavy rainfall that could cause flash floods and life-threatening storm surge as Ida continued its rampage Monday through southeastern Louisiana and then into Mississippi. It made landfall on the same day 16 years earlier that Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi. Its 150-mph (230 kph) winds tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland. Ida was already blamed for at least one death in Louisiana.
Ida’s Impact: See videos, warnings being shared on social media of devastating storm
The Associated Press contributed to this report.