Gulf Coast Utilities Stage Thousands of Repair Crews

HOUSTON - Utility companies staged an army of more than 10,000 linemen and tree-trimmers in Texas and northern Louisiana on Sunday, ready to move into Gustav's path as soon as the winds die down.

Entergy, the main power provider for southern Louisiana, said the restoration force was among the largest ever assembled in the United States, drawn from utilities as far away as Ohio and Pennsylvania under mutual-aid agreements.

Katrina knocked out power to more than 1.7 million customers in 2005, and some neighborhoods waited more than a month for electricity. Gustav's hurricane-force winds could snap poles and bring down lines across a wide swath of the state.

Utilities said they pre-positioned poles, transformers and miles of wire at staging areas in Baton Rouge and Alexandria, along with fuel for thousands of trucks.

Officials warned residents that if Gustav hits as hard as forecast, outages could last weeks in the hardest-hit areas — another reason, they said, not to rush back until authorities give the all-clear.

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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