Severe wind damages Lawson-Urbana
Local departments help out
LAWSON — Harsh winds outside of El Dorado caused power outages and tree damage that blocked Lawson-Urbana roads late Friday night, officials said.
Around midnight, Jeff Tillman woke to the sound of thunder and howling wind.
“It was dark and wicked looking out there,” he said. “I opened the door and the wind was blowing so hard my truck was moving a little bit.”
Located at the 1400 block of Lawson Road, Tillman described the inclement weather damage around his property. At his uncle’s house (located on the same block) the power meter was completely ripped off the hinges. About 15 trees had cracked or tore open behind that house and two big trees fell nearby onto Lawson Road, blocking traffic until authorities arrived, he said.
According to the National Weather Service, gust speeds maxed out at 45 miles per hour on Friday around 4 p.m. But this damage came like a tornado blip “out of nowhere,” Tillman said.
Between 9 p.m. Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday, 1,765 Entergy accounts went offline throughout Union and Ouachita Counties due to inclement weather, with about 900 from Camden and the rest from Lawson-Urbana, according to Bill Luther, customer service manager for Entergy.
After the damage had been cleaned “we got everyone back on by 9 p.m., Saturday,” Luther said.
At 1:12 a.m. Saturday, the LawsonUrbana Fire Department received a call from the Union County Sheriff’s Office about the excessive amount of tree debris blocking various roads.
“There were several on Nick Springs Road, probably 6-7 trees,” said Dewayne Worth, fire chief of Lawson-Urbana Fire Department. Trees blocked segments of the following roads: Nick Springs, Lawson, Frisby, and Moro Bay Highway.
One of the six volunteer firefighters, Justin Rogers, said there were 10-12 trees entangled in various power lines.
One huge oak tree broke off and blocked both lanes of Frisby Road, said Rusty Pratt, road foreman for the Union County Highway Department.
Around 3 a.m., six workers from the Union County Highway Department assisted the fire department in cutting and removing trees from the roads. Workers from both departments helped remove and clean trees until 10 a.m. Saturday.
“Between us and county there were about 18 trees altogether,” Worth said.
That number didn’t include the tangled tree damage off the main roads.
“It was a mess,” Pratt said. Union County Sheriff Ricky Roberts said he heard about the damage later Saturday from one of his deputies, whose cow escaped due to tree damage at his property. There were no reported fatalities and the cow returned safely home.
At the cusp of tornado season — late March — this kind of wind damage didn’t surprise Pratt. But Tillman said heavy wind damage normally didn’t hit the LawsonUrbana area, usually it struck more south.
“It’s very seldom anything comes where we live at,” Tillman said. “In the 16-17 years I’ve lived here, it’s never done anything like that before.”