Some faith leaders in this city band together for solution on spotty power
In the two years since Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana, some faith leaders in New Orleans have started to rethink their reliance on energy companies for consistent electricity, and are coming up with alternatives to serve their communities struggling with power outages.
The hurricane slammed into the southeast in August 2021, leaving residents in New Orleans without power for nearly three weeks.
The category four storm took down New Orleans' utility company Entergy's nearly 70-year-old energy grid, leaving thousands of people in the dark during the dangerous and deadly summer heat. Nine people in New Orleans died from excessive heat, according to the Louisiana Dept. of Health.
Inclement weather and frequent power outages have continued since then. Pastor Gregory Manning of Broadmoor Community Church told ABC News the outages are unpredictable.
"We've learned to kind of take it with a grain of salt and laugh to keep from crying, basically, because the power goes out in New Orleans when a squirrel rock across the line or bird lands," he said.
But Manning and other religious leaders said they decided to stop waiting for any help and took the problem head on.
The Community Lighthouse Project was spearheaded by a conglomerate of religious and nonprofit leaders who worked together to build disaster response centers driven by solar power to be less reliant on non-renewable energy sources.
Broadmoor is just one of seven Community Lighthouse facilities that include solar panels on its roof.
"We need to have a place where we're not waiting on generators. We're not waiting on how to power up. We need a place that can power up instantly and we can just keep right on going," Manning said.
Pierre Moses, who helped plan and design the technical aspects of the Community Lighthouse installations, told ABC News that the solar panels are used to help the grid during power outages.
"So when the grid goes down, the batteries provide the electrical supply for the building, just like a backup generator would," he said.
Since Ida, Entergy has faced growing pressure to address its seemingly fragile energy grid. The utility announced a plan that would harden 650 miles of power lines and upgrade posts to withstand 150 mph winds.
"Instead of spending money to restore and repair the grid in piecemeal fashion after the next storm hits, this plan allows us to thoughtfully and comprehensively make the entire system stronger," Beau Tidwell, a spokesperson for Entergy New Orleans, said in a statement.
Entergy was recently awarded $55 million from the federal government—part of a nearly $250 million statewide investment into grid resiliency—and some of that money also goes to the Community Lighthouse Project.
Manning said he hopes to have 500 Lighthouse locations across the state of Louisiana.
"We're just doing what we do. We're gonna keep on serving people. We're going to do that no matter what," he said.
