LITTLE ROCK — The president and chief executive officer of the state’s largest electrical utility was quick Wednesday to compare this week’s snowstorm to a holiday ice storm 12 years ago.
“This is a very significant storm,” Entergy President and CEO Hugh Mc-Donald said of the event that knocked out service to more than 191,000 of its customers and 74,000 served by other utilities.
“It reminds me of one of the storms that we had in 2000, that in fact that started on Christmas Day and had very similar characteristics. There were 210,000 customers out, I think. That was one of those 100-year storms, and this is another one of those significant storms.”
The storm woes in 2000 began with an ice storm the night of Dec. 12, in which an estimated 300,000 customers statewide lost power - including 266,000 Entergy customers - news reports from that time said.
Entergy is the state’s largest electric company, with 645,000 customers at that time.
“This is the worst storm we’ve ever seen on our system here in Arkansas,” McDonald said in a 2000 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article.
Representatives from the electrical cooperatives echoed those sentiments.
Entergy customers in Little Rock, Pine Bluff and El Dorado were hardest hit, and El Dorado-area customers reported the highest number of downed trees and poles.
This week, Entergy is calling in nearly 4,000 workers to assist in repairs.
In 2000, Entergy called in more than 6,000 people from 10 states to Arkansas to repair lines and install new poles, according to the newspaper account. Some of those workers were Entergy employees, but crews from other power companies also responded to requests for help.
“That’s more than we’ve ever brought in in the history of our company,” Mc-Donald said.
Thirteen deaths were blamed on the 2000 ice storm.
Then, a second round of sleet and freezing rain hit much of the state late Christmas Eve and early Christmas Day in 2000.
That time, as many as 320,000 people lost electrical power, including 210,000 Entergy customers - some 72,000 in Little Rock, according to the Democrat-Gazette accounts.
“It’s incredible we’re faced with another ice storm,” Entergy spokesman Jim Martindale said after the Christmas 2000 event. “The problem is, this is a heavier accumulation of ice than the last storm. Unfortunately, trees and ice don’t mix too well with power lines.”
Mike Huckabee, who was governor at the time, predicted the damage, including water and phone disruptions, would cost tens of millions ofdollars to repair.
“We’ve had an electrical heart attack,” the governor said.
At least four traffic fatalities were attributed to the storm.
President Bill Clinton declared a major disaster in 52 Arkansas counties.
New Year’s Day 2001 started with snowfall of 1 to nearly 4 inches but didn’t create more power failures - it just slowed the repairs already under way from the earlier bouts.
McDonald said Wednesday that the work required after this week’s storm doesn’t vary much from that in 2000.
“The technology really hasn’t changed that much,” McDonald said. “We may have some additional switching configurations in some of our urban areas that might enable us to get lights on quicker than we did 12 years ago. But, without seeing all the details of all the damage, it’s hard for me to make a direct comparison.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/27/2012