Winds over hurricane force leave power outages, debris across Southeast Louisiana

A line of severe weather raked across the region.

"We had hurricane force winds," WWL TV Meteorologist Payton Malone reported. "Winds hit 84 out at the airport in Kenner, 82 at the Lakefront Airport in New Orleans."

The National Weather Service reports wind gusted over 50 miles per hour in Hammond around midnight.

We have widespread reports of trees, limbs, garbage cans and other debris scattered about.

Power providers in Louisiana reported more than 165,000 customers lost electricity.

Entergy said this morning said that it was too early to know when the power would be flowing again.

"Due to storm activity in your area, we are experiencing extensive power outages. Our crews are working to restore service as quickly as possible. We do not currently expect to have your service restored overnight. At this time, we cannot predict when your power will be restored. We will provide an estimated restoration time and other information about your outage as soon as it's available. We apologize for this inconvenience."