Restoration Workers Persevere Following Tornadoes

By Monday (May 12) afternoon crews had reduced the 14,000 outages caused by tornadoes Saturday night to 3,300, but the rest of the week is going to be hard going, particularly in Stuttgart, where damage is dramatic and extensive.

Throughout the south end of Stuttgart, more than 300 poles had been snapped like matchsticks by an EF3 tornado that ripped through town around 8 p.m. Saturday. Under a blue sky Monday pieces of poles hung suspended by wires, transformers and conductors lay dead on city streets, and nearly 250 utility workers in clusters around the city were laboring diligently to restore order to chaos and light to darkness. 

Six transmission lines were damaged, including extensive steel frame damage in the Stuttgart area.

The task is expected to take until at least Friday to complete. Entergy Arkansas, Inc. has opened a Customer Information Center in the Stuttgart business office on Main Street for customers who would like to visit with a company representative in person.

Governor Mike Beebe toured Stuttgart Monday morning and participated in a news conference, at which Entergy Arkansas representative Mike Davis, customer service manager, represented Entergy Arkansas.

Elsewhere in the state, restoration workers had whittled the number of outages Monday afternoon down to 560 in Helena, and 235 in the El Dorado/Camden area.

Additional areas throughout the state sustained noteworthy damage, but all those areas’ power had been restored by day’s end Monday.

In some cases, there was a great deal more damage to equipment than outage numbers would indicate – so extensive repairs will be required.