Entergy wraps up restoration
Entergy Arkansas Inc. said Thursday afternoon that it expected to have service restored to all of its customers in Garland County by this morning, except for customers with individual problems that prevent them from being able to hook back into the system.
More than 11,000 Entergy customers in Garland County were left without power Tuesday after a severe thunderstorm moved through the area, and the utility had said at the time that it could be Thursday before all service was restored.
“That’s the plan right now,” Greg Asbell, Entergy’s regional manager for customer service, said around 2 p.m. Thursday. He said the remaining outages, about 285 customers, were mainly in the Lookout Point areas with a few others scattered around the county.
The outage initially affected customers along
and west of Central Avenue from near Orange Street to about Highway 290, south of the city, including the Hot Springs High School, Middle School, and Oaklawn Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School.
Homes near the south shore of Lake Hamilton south along Central Avenue were among the hardest-hit areas. Residents of Grand Isle Drive, Long Island Drive, Lookout Point Circle and Lookout Point Drive were blocked in by tree damage and downed power lines. Emergency agencies were unable to initially reach some residents Tuesday afternoon.
“The plan is still to have everybody restored today that can take power. The crews are still replacing broken poles and picking up wire. As with many storms, and particularly this one, we had very difficult working conditions, primarily due to high winds and heavy rain,” he said.
In looking back at storms in past years, Asbell said it always seems to be a challenge for electric utilities, from a strategic and tactical point during the initial hours of a storm event, to identify how to attack restoration efforts when weather conditions and equipment damage are constantly changing.
“That seems to always be a challenge,” he said.
To help with the restoration efforts, Asbell said Entergy brought in 49 additional West Tree Service trimmers to augment the 21 already present, and an additional 84 linemen. He said the linemen were with utility companies in Little Rock, Greenbrier, Conway, Vilonia, Russellville, and Malvern, as well as MDR Construction from Columbia, Miss.
“We want to thank the city and county crews for their professional work in closing roads and clearing up debris, which really helped us restore power to consumers. We’d also like to thank the public for their patience and understanding throughout this restoration event,” Asbell said.