By Amy Moore

The News staff writer

Living near a fire station, police station or hospital has its advantages - including being one of the first areas to get power back after Hurricane Ike's damaging strength pounded the region.

Debbi Derrick with Entergy said the power company is working to restore power to critical infrastructure and has already reconnected nearly 140,000 customers.

"Areas near city halls, fire stations, police stations, hospitals, water and sewer systems, we get those first. They are critical infrastructure," she said. "We restore where we can get the most customers on and then we go to rurals areas."

According to the Entergy website, most of Mid-County and Port Arthur are still without power. Outages in Griffing Park, the Central Mall area, Port Neches, Groves, Nederland, Winnie and Fannett are widespread.

Parts of Port Arthur, Beaumont and heavily damaged Bridge City, Orange and Boliver have some areas with power and other customers are not far behind.

Derrick said Thursday that 138,290 customers, 35 percent of the 392,600 who lost power from Ike, have been restored. Another 254,310 are still waiting.

"Ike impacted our entire service territory, it washed through everything," she said.

From Houston to Lake Charles, Entergy is using 14,200 workers to restore power - a job that's easier said than done.

"We had to take our Sabine station offline before the storm and it ended up with four feet of water inside," she said. "We'll have to do repairs there."

Another station in Louis Creek outside of Conroe, was knocked out during the storm and has since been brought back online. Customers who live close to this station reap the benefits from their location.

"It's easier with power there because it's immediately available," Derrick explained. "We'll use transmission lines to bring it (power) closer to the coast."

Mid-County outages will be repaired by Tuesday, Sept. 23, but that does not mean some customers will have power before then, Derrick said.

"We are energizing where ever we go," she said. "But one of the things that's happening in the southern region is we have flooded areas. We've determined there are 1,600 customers who cannot take power along the beach area."

'Not being able to take power' includes home being destroyed, flood waters still standing and/or weather heads being destroyed, Derrick said. Those are issues that Entergy factors in to its reconnection numbers.

While workers set poles, attach wires and survey damage, Entergy has set up customer information centers where Ike-affected customers can talk to Entergy representatives face to face.

One center is at the Bridge City Community Center, 101 Parkside, and another is at the Port Arthur Senior Citizens Center, 1308 Ninth Avenue. The centers are open from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

"It's too early to know what's going to happen," Derrick said of customers who had horrific damage. "We're using every available resource trying to restore power."

As Entergy crews scour Southeast Texas to reconnect customers, Derrick pleaded that residents stay away from downed power lines.

"Assume they are energized, even though there's no power. Stay away, period," she said.