Crews still working to restore power

More than 2,200 people in Benton County remain in the dark

BENTONVILLE — More than 2,200 people remained with power Thursday in Benton County as result of tornadoes and straight-line wind early Monday morning.

Nancy Plegge, a spokeswoman for Carroll Electric Cooperative, said the company had 2,022 customers without power. Plegge said 2,020 of those customers were in Benton County and two were in Carroll County.

She said Thursday’s rainy weather slowed progress.

“Obviously, we have made a lot of progress. There were 4,000 customers yesterday without power,” she said.

Plegge confirmed one of Carroll’s employees was injured Thursday and was in stable condition in a hospital. His injuries aren’t life-threatening, she said. No other information will be released, she said.

Southwestern Electric Power Company crews continued Thursday to restore power to restore power to 225 customers.

The storm left 8,800 customers in Northwest Arkansas without power, according to the company’s Facebook post. The estimated time of restoration for 95% of customers is 9 p.m. today, according to the post.

The remaining outages are

primarily in the area north and south of New Hope Road between Eighth Street and Dixieland Road in the Rogers area, according to the post.

Channing Barker, the spokeswoman for Benton County, said Thursday evening all the roads closed were opened.

Carey Hollis, the administrative assistant to Rogers Mayor Greg Hines, said all

the streets in the city are passable and most are handling normal traffic.

Monday morning’s two tornadoes produced wind exceeding 100 mph, according to Pete Snyder, a meteorologist with the Weather Service in Tulsa, Okla.

Snyder said the first tornado began in Adair County in northeast Oklahoma and tracked about 9.1 miles to the

Siloam Springs area. That tornado recorded wind between 90 and 100 mph.

The second storm started in the Siloam Springs area and traveled about 31 miles across Benton County to the area southeast of Avoca, he said. That storm produced 100-110 mph wind.