ST. MARTIN PARISH — A severe weather system that moved through St. Martinville on Thursday afternoon led to a prolonged power outage that affected much of the city overnight. Mayor Jason Willis said the storm caused significant damage to the city’s electrical infrastructure after lightning struck key equipment.
“It burned like six insulators in our substations, which is essential for our substation to run,” Willis said.
Power went out around 2:30 p.m. Thursday. City crews were able to complete initial repairs by about 6 p.m., but Willis said additional damage to transmission line “jumpers” extended restoration efforts into the night.
“We get our power through a transmission line from Entergy, meaning that we get our power from LEPA— Louisiana Power Authority— but it transmits through Entergy transmission lines,” Willis said.
Heavy rainfall throughout the region further complicated repair efforts, limiting access to equipment needed to reach damaged infrastructure. “Couldn’t get a regular bucket truck back there to do the repairs so they had to export buggies—that’s what they call them—from Lake Charles,” Willis explained.
Crews ultimately restored electricity around 1:30 a.m. Friday, bringing an end to the outage that lasted several hours and into the overnight period. While much of the city experienced service interruptions, one local business remained operational throughout the outage.
“We got a little bit busier since we have a generator that runs our whole store. So whether the power goes out or not, we’re still able to operate,” Robert Cade, owner of Cade’s Market shared.
Cade said the generator was the first major investment he made when opening the supermarket more than 20 years ago, a decision he credits with helping the business avoid major losses during outages.
“In a supermarket business, you have so much perishable stuff that if you don’t have a generator, you have to throw it away. If it goes bad, you’ve got a big clean-up right after that,” Cade said.
As the city returned to normal operations, Willis said upgrades to the substation are planned for the summer in an effort to strengthen the system against future weather-related disruptions.
“If lightning strikes it or whatever it is, it’s out of our control. Hopefully the upgrade—it’s needed, it’s been needed. So we budgeted for it and the upgrades will be beneficial to our electrical system, which is the heart of our city,” Willis said.
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