The number of power failures across Arkansas dwindled to 14,400 late Sunday, though efforts to clean up after Saturday morning's storm were still in their early stages.
Approximately 11,500 customers were still without power in Pulaski County, with a vast majority of those customers being in west Little Rock, Entergy Arkansas reported.
Entergy spokesman Kerri Case said Pulaski County had the highest number of power failures -- more than 48,000 at the height of the storm early Saturday morning -- and that more than 1,000 workers are on the ground cleaning up damage and restoring power across the state.
"This particular storm has more severe damage than a typical thunder storm," Case said in an email. "Statewide, approximately 2,002 miles of distribution line were damaged or destroyed."
More than 300 workers were bused in from Louisiana and Texas to aid in the cleanup, though Case said downed trees and blocked roadways hampered restoration efforts early on. About 200 employees, Case said, were working exclusively on debris cleanup.
Most areas have restoration time estimates available on Entergy's website, but Case said it is not yet known when the full system will be restored.
For many Little Rock residents waiting for their power to return, it's all about finding a way to stay cool -- or, as Spencer Francis on LaSalle Drive put it, "surviving."
"It's a survival game out here," Francis said Sunday while standing in the heat with neighbors Melissa Stansbery and Damon Meyer.
Francis said she rented a generator and bought a window unit air conditioner, following Meyer's and Stansbery's lead.
"You should hear it in the afternoon. Half the neighborhood is humming," Francis said. "Most of our neighbors went to hotels or something, but I wanted to be home. If you can, you know, it's just better."
Francis can see the trees that took out her power -- and the outer edge of one side of her roof -- from her wooden deck in the backyard. Unfortunately, she said, that tree took out power to her whole cul-de-sac.
Meyer already had a few generators -- he said he uses them often on camping trips -- and let Stansbery borrow the one he was not using. It costs approximately $30 a day to run the generator, Meyer said, but is worth it to be able to stay home.
"I'm kind of freaking out," Stansbery said. "My husband leaves tomorrow for five days, the house is hot and I have three kids."
The estimated restoration time for their block was 10 p.m. today, according to Entergy's website.
Prioritizing which areas are restored first, Case said, is a matter of safety and efficiency. After ensuring that generation stations are functioning, Case said, workers look at major transmission lines and first-response situations. Entergy then prioritizes repairs that will help the most customers the fastest, she said.
Restoring power in the summer heat, Case said, can add complications to an already dangerous situation.
"[Linemen and employees] are dealing with downed trees, live lines, heat, staying hydrated, fatigue and a desire to get power restored as quickly as safely possible," she said. "Supervisors emphasize safety with workers during these times to be sure they all go home healthy at the end of the storm."
Private companies, too, were out cleaning up debris and clearing downed trees. Dean Goodson, owner of Giraffe Tree Service, said Sunday that his company -- and its 60-ton, 130-foot boom crane -- had lifted trees off of more than 10 homes since Saturday morning.
One of those trees, Goodson said while standing near a home near Loyola Drive, was more than 5 feet in diameter.
"I woke up to a Christmas tree of phone messages," Goodson said. "The storm really hit around 2 a.m. Saturday, and people started calling right then. By 8 a.m., I had more than 50 messages."
Susan Hurst, on whose home a poplar more than 2½ feet in diameter fell, watched warily as the crane lifted the log off the roof of her kitchen.
"It was awful," she said."I heard a lot of sizzling and crackling, and I looked outside and my dogwood was going in circles."
Hurst said she rushed out of bed early Saturday when the storm woke her, and she took shelter in her basement.
"I was scared to go into the kitchen," she said. "I didn't know if there was a fire or what in there."
On the other side of her home was a garden Hurst said she had been tending since she first moved into the house in 2001.
"Seventeen years," she said. "It really was beautiful."
Another tree fell and crushed a broad swath of Hurst's carefully tended plants.
"I had a limelight blooming, and it must have had 150 blooms on it," she said. "I went out this morning and couldn't see nary a bloom."
Once the trees were lifted and cleared away, however, Hurst said the body of the limelight hydrangea was still there, and still salvageable.
"Oh, there's still some life in there," she said. "It'll come back."
Metro on 07/23/2018