BEAUMONT -- The path of Hurricane Gustav offered New Orleans a reprieve, but 80 miles away, where utilities say the devastation was the worst they have ever seen, the storm offered nothing but punishment.

The region's top power company, Entergy Corp., said the Baton Rouge area had never suffered damage as severe as that caused by Gustav. The last storm that caused damage close to Gustav's was in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida, crossed the Gulf of Mexico and then slammed Louisiana.

Co-op Dixie Electric Membership Corp., based in Baton Rouge, at one time reported that all 95,000 members were without power. The last time that happened was 1992.

Renae Conley, president and chief executive of Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, has said Gustav was not as bad for New Orleans as Katrina three years ago but that the situation was worse in Baton Rouge.

"It is pretty devastating to see the amount of transmission damage for the state," she said.

Entergy said 90 percent of its customers in Baton Rouge should have power back by Sept. 17, the rest by Sept. 24. Dixie Electric have said it may be weeks before all power is restored.

Trees are down, power poles have been snapped in half and the transmission system was hammered. Utilities, hindered by torrential rains and the threats of tornadoes until the weather began to improve Thursday, must negotiate hills, woods and swamps to get power restored.

The Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in Louisiana, estimates that half the power will be restored in nine days but that it will take up to four weeks before all power is back.

Gov. Bobby Jindal has said that's unacceptable.

"One of the things that absolutely has to be worked out is what more could be done to harden the lines and make the distribution system more safe for future storms or intentional acts, whether it's additional redundancies or a hardening of the assets," he said Thursday.

He said restoring power is vital to getting the state's hard-hit communities back on their feet.

"If we do have full power, it lessens the need to evacuate patients out of hospitals and nursing homes," he said. "If we do have full power, it lessens the need to have to go and buy generators and try to stand up fuel stations, grocery stores and pharmacies."

Entergy Corp. said that 11 of the 12 Gulf Coast oil refineries it serves would have enough power by Thursday night to begin their start-up operations and resume production.

The Department of Energy said Thursday morning that 1 million customers were without power, including 925,963 in Louisiana. That is down nearly 200,000 customers from Wednesday afternoon.

Entergy reported that 664,857 customers were without power Thursday afternoon, down from a peak of 850,000 Tuesday morning and the second-highest number in the utility's 95-year history, trailing only Katrina in 2005, when the utility had 1.1 million outages.

Entergy said 90 percent of its customers in New Orleans should have power restored by Saturday and that the entire city should be back by Monday. Most customers in Arkansas should have power back Friday.

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