John Guidroz

As the Category 2 Hurricane Delta makes its way along the Southwest Louisiana coastline Friday, officials with Suddenlink Communications, and its parent company, Altice USA, said steps are being taken to prepare for its impact.

Janet Meahan, vice president of communications for Altice USA, said Thursday that crews were being pulled because of the mandatory evacuation orders. More than 2,000 crew members have been working on restoration since Hurricane Laura’s Aug. 27 landfall. So far, service has been restored to 18,000 Suddenlink customers. As of Thursday, service was restored to 43 percent of Calcasieu Parish customers.

“This new storm … could cause further damage to our system from strong winds, rain gusts and flooding,” Meahan said. “We are taking precautions to ensure the safety of our team members, as well as communicating proactively to our customers in the areas projected to be impacted.”

Some steps being taken to prepare for Hurricane Delta include fueling up facility generators, staging materials and equipment, setting up a command center and having enough portable generators to deploy after Delta’s landfall.

“Our fully staffed teams are rapidly preparing across the area to assist Suddenlink customers with any immediate needs following the storm,” Meahan said. “Additionally, our regional operations center continually monitors the network to spot outages and enable our teams to diagnose and resolve any issues.”

Meahan said crews will begin assessing damage from Hurricane Delta as early as Saturday afternoon, or once conditions are safe. She said Altice is communicating with Entergy and CLECO to coordinate service restoration after Delta’s landfall.

“We are also providing the list of our critical infrastructure sites that rely on commercial power to support prioritized restoration efforts,” Meahan said.

Altice USA has communicated with 10 local emergency management offices in areas that appear to be most impacted by Hurricane Delta, including Lake Charles.

Suddenlink customers are alerted through email and text messages. Customers are encouraged to sign up for text service alerts by visiting account.suddenlink.net.

To communicate with Suddenlink, visit suddenlink.com/chat, @Suddenlinkhelp on Twitter, or call 877-794-2724.

Online: suddenlink.com/storm Dexter Goei, CEO of Altice USA, visited Lake Charles this week to discuss Suddenlink’s restoration efforts after Hurricane Laura. 

Rick Hickman