In the dark: Storms cut power

Storms hit Pea Ridge Thursday and Saturday night leaving half the city in the dark as customers of Southwestern Electric Power Company were without power most of the night. Just before 7 a.m. Friday morning, the last SWEPCO lines were restored and by 9 a.m. Sunday, power was restored from the Saturday outage.

On Tuesday, firefighters were clearing limbs away from the homes of elderly residents as part

“The folks at Fire and Street departments — the guys got out and done a great job.,”

Jackie Crabtree

Mayor

of the Firewise program designed to lessen fire hazards.

“We can’t go on people’s property without their permission,”

Mayor Jackie Crabtree said. The firefighters place the brush at the curb, the employees from the Street Department can pick up the brush to take to the burn pile on Greer Street.

Elderly residents who are unable to move downed limbs or brush next to their residence may call the Fire Department (451-1111) for assistance.

There is still a burn ban, Crabtree said, so none of the brush is being burned at this time.

“The folks at Fire and Street departments — the guys got out and done a great job,” Crabtree said of the Saturday night storm which left trees across roadways and on some houses.

“There was not any kind of warning ahead” for this storm, he added.

“All of our emergency personnel did a great job,” the mayor concluded.

Linemen for SWEPCO worked throughout the night both Thursday night and Saturday night tracing the lines seeking the source of the outage and reconnecting switches.

“All this lightning makes it dangerous,” Richard King, SWEPCO lineman, said.

Times photograph by Annette Beard Street superintendent Nathan See ran the chainsaw Saturday night clearing a tree off Carr Street while Tom Sheets, Street Department employee, operated the U80 loader. The two put in three hours each beginning at 11 p.m. clearing city streets of trees...

Times photographs by Annette Beard Shortly before 7 a.m. Friday, Aug. 3, Richard King, right, reconnected the switches on the electrical lines at Patton and N. Curtis Avenue, restoring electricity to the end of the line for Southwestern Electric Power Company customers, who had been...

The fence along Weston Street at the youth baseball fields was damaged by strong straight-line winds which blew through town Saturday night downing trees, blowing over fences and causing havoc. Fire Department personnel were dispatched to numerous...

Pea Ridge firefighters were dispatched to several sites to remove trees from houses Saturday night after a storm passed through town. A tree fell on a house at 1616 S. Curtis Ave.; no one was injured.

Concreteblock walls at the entrance to the King Lane apartments on Weston Street blew over when a strong, straight-line wind hit Pea Ridge after dark Saturday.