A selective storm
THAT WAS a heckuva storm that blew through the state early Saturday morning, wasn’t it? Depends on who you ask. Many central Arkansas residents, particularly those in Saline, Lonoke, and Pulaski counties, took a big hit that morning, what with the uproar caused by wind, lightning, and thunder. Others, even some who live within walking distance of some of the most severely distressed areas, didn’t experience enough ruckus to even wake up. Storms have to stop somewhere.
According to the National Weather Service, significant damage resulted from straight-line winds that reached 60 to 70 mph in some areas. The city of Little Rock’s Public Works Department responded to more than 100 calls to remove trees and debris blocking roads and driveways.
Entergy Arkansas certainly had plenty to do in the storm’s aftermath: Around 48,000 customers were without electricity on Saturday morning; restoring it to everybody took several days.
Power lines were down all over, sometimes tangled in fallen tree limbs, a dangerous situation for those trying to clear those limbs that crashed down onto houses, cars, and roadways.
Without power, there goes the air conditioning, which is distressing when the temperature is above 90 degrees. People unwilling to hang out in hot houses purchased, borrowed, or rented generators (average cost to operate: $30$35 per day). Others flocked to area hotels, which experienced near-record occupancy rates over the weekend. There they could spend their unexpected free time considering how much food they’d have to throw out after returning to a house with a non-working refrigerator.
Then there were areas, like Riverdale, where the most annoying incident that happened to one resident was that her key card wouldn’t open the electronically-controlled door at her 24-hour-access gym that morning. Nearby on Cantrell Road, at approximately the same time as the gym incident, somebody took advantage of a limited power outage to bust through the glass doors of a Mexican restaurant (the surveillance cameras weren’t working) and make off with a whopping take of around $250.
According to The Book, the sun rises on the wicked and on the good, and rain falls on the just and on the unjust. But not always at the same time or in the same volume. Riverdale and other neighborhoods, it seems, got off easy. For now.