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Thousands of homes and businesses without power as Hurricane Laura continues to moves inland.

Widespread outages, affecting more than 10,000 customers, are being reported in Port Arthur with thousands more in Nederland and the surrounding area. More than 40,000 customers are being reported without power in Jefferson County.

Massive telecommunications and internet outages are also being reported in the Port Arthur area.

Entergy Texas customers may see extended power outages as crews work to restore power. Given the intensity of the storm and the additional need for our crews to follow COVID-19 precautionary measures, hardest-hit areas may experience outages for weeks, Entergy said in a statement Wednesday.

Entergy crews will not move back into the area to begin restoration until it is safe to do so. Once workers are back in the affected areas, they will begin restoring service to customers by closing circuit breakers, rerouting power and other means. Sustained winds must be less than 30 mph for Entergy to use its bucket trucks.

In a statement Wednesday, Entergy said it will put in place a restoration plan that helps us restore the greatest number customers safely in the shortest amount of time once a damage assessment is made.