LITTLE ROCK, AR (News Release) – Entergy Arkansas crews are working to restore power to customers after a severe weather system with damaging straight-line winds rolled through the state Thursday night. At the peak at 10:00 p.m. Thursday there were 62,416 outages. At 3 p.m. Friday that number was down to about 22,000.
Packing lightning and winds up to 80 mph, the storm knocked down trees and utility poles. Worst-hit areas include Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Sheridan, Gurdon, Stamps, Stuttgart, Hot Springs and Helena.
In addition to Entergy Arkansas linemen, contract linemen and baseload vegetation workers and associated support personnel who are normally in Arkansas, the company has secured and is mobilizing over 900 additional employees from sister companies, other utilities and contractors.
Current estimates are for the majority of customers to have power restored by midnight tonight with some of the more difficult cases carrying over into Saturday and Sunday.
Entergy Arkansas reminds customers to stay away from downed power lines. Report them by calling 1-800-9OUTAGE.
See the View Outages feature at entergy.com for real-time progress on restoration work.
