(Adds Entergy statement in paragraph four, updates latest

figures)

Sept 12 (Reuters) - Over 340,000 homes and businesses in

Louisiana were left without power on Thursday after Hurricane

Francine barrelled onto the state's Gulf Coast, according to

data from PowerOutage.us.

Francine abated to a tropical storm earlier in the day, but

not before it pounded southeast Louisiana and southern

Mississippi and Alabama with heavy rains and gusty winds.

The utility with the most customers hit was Entergy ( ETR ),

which had 260,900 clients without power.

"We have started restoring service to our customers where it

is safe to do so and assessing damage to our system caused by

Francine," Entergy ( ETR ) said in a press release on Thursday.

It was followed by Dixie Electric Membership Corporation,

with 30,723 customers cut off in the state.

Here are the major outages by utility in Louisiana:

Power Companies Outages

Entergy ( ETR )

260,900

Dixie Electric Membership Corporation

30,723

Cleco Power

28,276

Washington St. Tammany Electric Cooperative

20,487

Total

340,386