Thousands of New Orleans residents lost power Wednesday afternoon as an area of disturbed weather roughly 3,000 miles away began taking its toll on the city.
More than 2,800 customers were without power across portions of New Orleans, following a brief period of light rain, overcast skies and a few rumbles of thunder, but no hurricane, tropical storm, strong winds, or other weather conditions traditionally associated with widespread power outages.
Attention quickly turned to an area of disturbed weather far out in the Atlantic that forecasters are monitoring for possible tropical development.
“Once I saw there was something spinning out there, I figured we were in trouble,” Milneburg area resident Thomas Ezell said as he began mentally calculating how long everything in his freezer had left. “Three thousand miles really isn’t that far away when you’re talking about our power grid.”
The disturbance currently poses no immediate threat to Louisiana and remains several days away from even potentially becoming something New Orleans residents would need to worry about.
The power grid, however, appears to be several days ahead of schedule.