Entergy works until early Tuesday restoring power

Entergy Arkansas Inc. crews worked into the early morning hours Tuesday to restore power after strong thunderstorms moved through western Garland County Monday night.

By 8:30 p.m., at the peak of the storms, Entergy had around 5,000 customers without power as the result of severe lightning and strong winds, according to Jim Garland, Entergy’s regional customer service manager.

A couple of strong thunderstorms developed over the area at around 8:15 p.m. Monday, according to Garland, although no watches or warnings were issued by the National Weather Service.

While there were several scattered outages, the largest was along Airport Road near Hot Springs Memorial Field, west to Lake Hamilton, and along Albert Pike near the King Expressway.

Power was restored to most of that area at around 10 p.m., but Garland said there were around 150 customers still without power near the airport.

“Workers are repairing downed power lines in this area and estimate power will be restored within the next two to three hours,” he said Monday night.

Another large outage that affected around 750 customers occurred about 6:45 p.m. near the Royal area.

“This outage should be repaired by midnight. Workers will continue to work through the night to restore the remaining scattered outages,” Garland said late Monday.

Power was restored to the airport and surrounding area around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, Garland said.

Another outage occurred along Mountain Pine Road when a tree was blown down on the line and broke a utility pole and wires. “This repair work was completed and power was restored to this area about 4:30 this morning,” he said Tuesday.