ST. GABRIEL, La. — A St. Gabriel family says their power has gone out more than 60 times since last summer, a problem they say puts their 2-year-old son’s health at risk. The child has a diagnosed lung condition and depends on electricity for breathing treatments, while some of his medication requires refrigeration.
His mother, Holly Judd, said she no longer wonders whether the power will go out — she expects it.
“It literally is a life-or-death situation,” Judd said. “He’s had multiple hospital stays already. We don’t want to go through that again because of an issue of not having power in 2026. like it’s 2026 and you can’t provide consistent, reliable energy to a neighborhood that is 10 minutes outside of the capital city.”
Family documents outages, losses
Judd said the outages have become so frequent — sometimes occurring every week and sometimes multiple times in a single day — that the family has lost groceries, missed work, and spent thousands of dollars replacing food and other items. She said the outages often do not affect the entire neighborhood, with nearby houses retaining power while her section of the street goes dark…