BATON ROUGE - Entergy said it is gearing up for Francine, planning to deploy more than 5,000 workers across southeast Louisiana by landfall. 

The following was sent in a statement at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday: 

As of Tuesday morning, approximately 1,600 employees and contractors are on the ground in Louisiana, with an additional 3,400 resources requested—bringing the total to around 5,000 personnel, including lineworkers, tree trimmers, scouts and support staff. Additional resources are expected to be arriving this afternoon and into tomorrow morning.

Of the 5,000 anticipated resources, approximately 1,400 will be tree trimmers tasked with removing vegetation to allow lineworkers to safely repair and work on electric equipment. This allocation is double the number of tree trimmers used for previous storms, such as hurricanes Isidore and Lili.

While some tasks, like damage assessments and field switching, can be completed on the ground as the storm moves out, lineworkers cannot safely use bucket trucks to work on electric equipment until winds decrease to 30 mph or less.

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