there is no electricity they are dealing with but because this building has come down, what they are doing is they are disconnecting the electricity to this building so that as the cleanup continues or if any power comes through, nobody gets shocked. that said, they are saying that for most customers it s going to be seven to ten days before they get power. this is what entergy says it will look like to restore power in new orleans. first of all, they re going to work to get essential power to essential services, hospitals, nursing homes, fire, police, and water systems. obviously that s a big deal, both pumps and cleaning water, sewage and things like that. then they re going to repair the major lines that go from the energy production plant to the substations. as you know, about 130,000 volts comes from the energy company goes to a substation which then drops that down to lower voltage which gets you ultimately to 110 volts you have inside a house or 220 volts if you re industrial.
i know that you ve been in dicey situations as you ve been down there. we appreciate you bringing us the details of the story as it develops. ali velshi, let s talk about the problem we see in new orleans right now. besides the devastation that i m seeing behind you, you ve got a lack of power throughout the entire city. a blackout essentially. when night falls, no one is going to see or do anything at that point. how are they dealing? reporter: it s total. there s no traffic lights. it s not like there are areas that don t have power. there s no power at all here. if there was any power anywhere, it s generators that are generating that power. there s no electricity coming from entergy. this building collapsed near us. it looked like it might have been residential. nobody appears to have been in it. they are cleaning it up. if i take you over here, you have a couple entergy workers.