Early morning storms leave 5,500 without power in Garland County
A line of severe thunderstorms that rolled through the Hot Springs/Garland County area early Tuesday morning left 5,500 Entergy Arkansas customers without power, downing numerous trees and causing some structural damage in the city of Hot Springs.
By 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the number of customers without power had dropped to around 3,500 in the Hot Springs/Garland County area, said J. Paul Brewster, customer service manager for Entergy.
Most of the damage was wind and vegetation related, Brewster said.
“Crews are working with additional resources being allocated from other parts of the state as well as contractors. We anticipate restoring service to a large portion of those customers currently without power by late tonight (Tuesday). Based on initial damage assessments it will most likely be late Thursday before all services are restored,” Brewster said.
“So far we have found 40 broken poles and multiple spans of wire down while damage assessments continue,” he said later in the day. Forty additional line crews were scheduled to arrive Tuesday evening and should be available for deployment this morning, he said.
There were no injuries reported, Hot Springs police Cpl. Patrick Langley, the department’s public information officer, told The Sentinel-Record later in the day Tuesday.
Most of the damage was reportedly concentrated in the city of Hot Springs. When asked about damages in the unincorporated areas of the county, Garland County sheriff’s Deputy Courtney Kizer, the department’s public information officer, said she didn’t know of any, just residents who lost power.
Meteorologist Travis Shelton with the National Weather Service in Little Rock said Hot Springs Memorial Field recorded wind gusts of 71 mph at 1:47 a.m.
At 71 mph, the winds were just 2 mph under the speed of an F1 tornado.
Shelton said there was “no indication of a tornado. Just a strong thunderstorm.”
When asked if storms of this level are common, Shelton said “Oh yes,” noting this storm was “about what we expect.” He said there were numerous reports of trees being down in Garland County.
The city of Hot Springs released a list of 48 separate instances of damage caused by severe thunderstorms early Tuesday morning:
• 400 Oaklawn; lines down.
• Freida and Richard; lines down.
• 200 Hudson; lines down.
• 1813 Spring, trees and lines down.
• 130 Gardner, trees and lines down on house.
• 300 N Patterson; trees and lines down.
• 228 W. Grand; lines down.
• Hagen and Dawer, lines down.
• 330 Sixth St.; trees and lines down on house.
• 218 Richard; lines down.
• 200 Oaklawn; lines down.
• 500 W. Grand; lines down.
• Airport and Albert Pike; lines down.
• West Grand and Summer; lines down.
• Park and Stonebridge; tree down, but it was removed.
• Summer and Fourth; trees and lines down.
• 300 Alpine; trees down.
• Audubon and Roberts; trees down.
• Illinois, between Clara/ Raymond; three trees down.
• Rector and Garland; tree down.
• 304 Seventh St.; tree down.
• 404 Sixth St.; trees and lines down (lines dead).
• 409 Seventh St.; lines on house.
• Elmonte and Norwalk; trees and lines down.
• Sixth and Kips Ally; lines down with tree.
• Albert Pike and Lura Place; tree down.
• 200 Campbell; tree and lines down, barricades.
• Ward and Summer; tree down.
• Panda and Ward; tree down.
• 763 Quapaw; tree and lines down.
• Grove and Ivy; hot lines in road.
• 827 Park; tree down on gas meter (was shut off).
• Seventh and 99011 Ally; trees and lines down.
• Grand and Summer; tree down (was removed).
• Gorge Road; tree down (was removed).
• 122 Pleasant; lines down, roof debris.
• 300 Bellaire Drive; tree down.
• Bellaire Loop and Fairoaks; utility pole down with trees.
• Tillayer; tree down.
• 211 Campbell; tree on house.
• 825 Prospect; tree and line down.
• 115 Lura Place; tree down.
• Locust and E. grand; trees down and lines down.
• Richard and Albert Pike; traffic signal completely out.
• Prospect and Robinson; line down but not in the road.
• 115 Spencer Chase; tree blocking road.
• 300 Grove St.; road 80% blocked.
• 912 Garland; trees down and lines down.
Light and Time Design Studio LLC, 3512 Ragweed Valley Road, in Royal, also sustained damage during the storm. Mary Zunick, executive director of the Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance, told The Sentinel-Record the damage has forced the studio to pull out of Studio Tours.
Zunick said a branch went through the roof of the studio and the power and phones were down, noting the studio is “completely shut down. Can’t work at all, can’t meet deadlines for work that is due to clients.”
Studio Tours is an event that is part of Arts & The Park where local artists open their studios up to festival attendees. From
10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, the remaining 18 art studios will be open for tours.