Electricity still off for thousands

Crews from 14 states join in repairing storm-damaged lines

Eric Worsham helps remove limbs from his neighbor’s house Saturday along Longwood Road in Cammack Village. A tree service contracted with Cammack Village to help residents dispose of debris from last week’s storms.
Eric Worsham helps remove limbs from his neighbor’s house Saturday along Longwood Road in Cammack Village. A tree service contracted with Cammack Village to help residents dispose of debris from last week’s storms.

With help from out-of-state utility crews, Entergy Arkansas expects to restore power by 10 p.m. today to most Arkansas customers who lost electricity during storms Thursday and Friday, a utility representative said Saturday.

That won't be the case for people whose home meter boxes were damaged, Entergy spokesman Sally Graham said Saturday. In those cases, the homeowners must first hire electricians to fix the boxes, and then Entergy workers will restore electrical service, Graham said.

As of Saturday afternoon, 35,000 Entergy customers in Arkansas remained without power. Most of those were in Pulaski County, Graham said.

Other electrical companies and cities also reported lingering power failures Saturday as people cleared debris left by the storms that produced high winds and downpours that created some flash flooding.

Southwestern Electric Power Co. had restored service to almost all of its Arkansas customers by Saturday evening, said spokesman Peter Main.

The outages map for North Little Rock Electric Co. showed more than 500 customers without electricity Saturday afternoon.

Elsewhere Saturday, Entergy reported about 5,500 customers without power in Garland County and about 4,000 in Hot Spring County.

Union, Saline, Montgomery and Jefferson counties each had about 2,000 customers still without electricity, Graham said.

At the peak of the power failures, 138,903 customers were without electricity, Graham said. A "customer" can be a business or a residence.

Crews from 14 states have arrived to help repair Entergy's lines, increasing the number of those workers to almost 3,000 by Saturday, Graham said.

Workers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas arrived after officials in Arkansas put out a call for extra help Thursday night, Graham said.

The crews were still arriving throughout the day Saturday. Staging areas were set up in Little Rock, Hot Springs and El Dorado where the workers gathered with their trucks to coordinate their efforts, Graham said.

With Saturday's temperatures reaching into the 90s, two cooling centers were set up for people in Little Rock: at the Dunbar Community Center and the Southwest Community Center. Both were open from noon to 7 p.m.

"We do know how difficult it is with it being so hot," Graham said.

Little Rock public works crews have been working since Thursday to clear storm debris, said Jennifer Godwin, communications and marketing director for the city.

Most of the tree damage occurred during Thursday's storm, Godwin said.

The Arkansas Forestry Commission released a list of tips Saturday for tree care after the storms.

If more than 50 percent of the tree's top is still intact, the tree can probably be saved. A tree should be removed if more than 50 percent is damaged, if the trunk is split, if the tree is leaning over from root damage or if it has been damaged several times before, the list states.

If the limbs are damaged, the tree can usually be repaired with some pruning, the list says.

Godwin said two city crews worked all night Thursday to clear trees, limbs and other debris from streets in more than 200 locations. She said the list of places in need of clearing grew throughout the night.

"We crossed three [locations] off, and three more were added," she said.

Workers had cleared almost 100 locations as of 5 p.m. Saturday. Downed trees and utility lines still blocked 16 locations Saturday, according to a city news release.

The release advised residents to put storm debris from their yards on the curb for pickup.

Crews are working around the clock to clear city streets, Godwin said.

"That's kind of the motto," she said. "We do it until it's done."

In Pine Bluff, parts of Martin Street, State Street, 42nd Street and Cherry Street remained closed until Saturday night.

Metro on 07/17/2016

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