Days after Isaac, a quarter-million still in dark

Entergy, which provides power to most of the people who lost it, was under fire over the weekend from local government officials for what they said was a slow pace of restoration. Jefferson Parish President John Young said widespread outages were hampering businesses' recovery from the storm and he would ask the state Public Service Commission to investigate.

Entergy spokesman Chanel Lagarde noted that Isaac had lingered over the state after Tuesday's landfall and said Friday was the first day the corporation could get restoration efforts into high gear.

"We are working hard. We do have a good plan and we're going about it in an approach that we think is going to be effective," Lagarde said.

Burdeau reported from Bay St. Louis, Miss., and Slidell, La.