Company fields complaints concerning power outages

LITTLE ROCK—Arkansas’ largest utility welcomed cold customers to its headquarters Saturday and pledged that crews from throughout the South were working as quickly as possible to restore electricity knocked out by a Christmas Day blizzard.

Entergy Arkansas said customers in remote locations or in rough terrain could be without service until New Year’s Day. About 50,000 homes and businesses remained without power Saturday.

So far, officials are estimating the storm caused tens of millions of dollars of damage to Arkansas’ power grid. The president of Entergy Arkansas told The Associated Press that customers would bear the cost of those repairs.

On their fourth day without power, Entergy Arkansas customers visited the utility’s Little Rock office to share comments, complaints and questions with company representatives. Some walked away satisfied, some were frustrated and some were elated to find that as they discussed their problems, power had been restored back at home.

The company’s emergency response chief acknowledged the utility’s initial response was delayed. He said forecasters underestimated the storm and states that often help Arkansas wouldn’t make repair crews available because they, too, were facing severe weather.

Counting customers at Entergy and locally owned utilities, more than 260,000 homes and businesses were without power for at least part of the last week. As of Saturday night, the number had dropped to about 50,000.