A utility spokesman said Monday that crews are still working to restore power to about 3,000 customers in eastern Arkansas after weekend storms destroyed several utility poles and transmission structures.
Thunderstorms on Saturday night caused more than 13,000 customers across the state to lose power, Entergy said Sunday on Twitter.
From about 9:15 to 11:45 p.m. Saturday, winds starting at 65 mph and peaking at 100 mph moved south over a 100-mile path from the Arkansas-Missouri border to south of Forrest City, according to the National Weather Service's Memphis office. The agency said Monday that one person was injured in the storm but did not release further details.
According to the weather service, the storm did not produce a tornado, just straight-line winds.
An Entergy outage map shows the hardest-hit area was in St. Francis County, where 2,770 customers remained without power as of 6 p.m. Monday. In Forrest City, 100 mph straight-line winds destroyed 80 to 100 utility poles that crews were repairing Monday, company spokesman David Harris said.
More than 60 people were working to fix the damage, and 30 vegetation contractors were on site clearing roads and removing trees from power lines. But power for some customers may not be restored until 11 p.m. Wednesday, he said.
Harris added that in addition to broken distribution poles that connect customers to each other, the storm destroyed the city's transmission structures, which carry power from the power plants to the distribution system.
The storm devastated St. Francis County's Delta Regional Airport's business building and its 12 hangars, damaging about 10 private airplanes beyond repair, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.