Fewer than 400 households in Carroll County were still without electricity as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 29, more than three days after at least four tornadoes tore through Northwest Arkansas and left eight people dead.
According to the website PowerOutage.us, 377 electric customers in Carroll County were without power Wednesday afternoon, a total that represented 2.01 percent of the electric customers in the county. That number included 367 Carroll Electric Cooperative customers and 10 Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) customers.
Just 48 hours earlier, almost 3,500 Carroll County customers had no power.
Statewide, more than 22,500 customers were without electric power Wednesday afternoon, the website reported, including almost 19,000 customers in Benton County, which appeared to bear the brunt of the damage from the powerful storms that swept through the region in the early-morning hours of Sunday, May 26.
In a statement posted on its website, Carroll Electric said it had identified more than 1,100 broken poles that needed to be replaced to fully restore all service locations, in addition to other damage caused by the storms.
In addition to Carroll Electric’s internal crews, 129 outside crews including both line services and rightof- way clearance were committed to assist with restoration.
“Carroll Electric has enacted its Emergency Restoration Plan, which means multiple-day restoration efforts are expected for some areas. Please know the Cooperative is utilizing every resource available to restore power safely in the shortest time possible,” the cooperative’s statement said.
Statewide, more than 9,400 Carroll Electric customers were without power Wednesday afternoon, PowerOutage.us said. More than 8,700 of those were in Benton County. The number of Carroll Electric customers without power had been more than 24,000 statewide and more than 20,000 in Benton County alone just 48 hours earlier.
In a statement issued just after 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 28, SWEPCO said it had restored power to more than 9,800 customers in Northwest Arkansas and was working to restore power to 9,000 more.
By Wednesday afternoon, fewer than 8,700 SWEPCO customers were without power in Arkansas, with all but 30 of those in Benton County.
Storm Surveys
The National Weather Service Office in Tulsa conducted storm surveys from Carroll County west to Rogers County, Okla., the office said in a statement on Monday, May 27.
“Damage produced by this long-track supercell was extensive, including high-end straight-line wind damage from its rear flank downdraft, as well as tornado damage, some of which has already been confirmed in the strong category (EF2 and EF3),” the statement said.
The Weather Service statement said there were likely two tornadoes west of Centerton in Benton County, including one that produced EF2 damage.
“Extensive straight-line wind damage occurred across Benton County, including this area, into Bentonville and across portions of Rogers into the War Eagle area,” the weather service statement said. “Tornadoes also occurred at times in those areas, to the north of where the straight-line wind damage occurred.”
Later, the agency confirmed a total of four tornadoes in Benton County.
Local impact
In Eureka Springs, many electric customers had their service interrupted. A planned Memorial Day observance at American Legion Post 9 had to be canceled because there was no electricity at the post building.
Strong winds from a Monday storm knocked down numerous trees, some falling on a handful of homes and blocking numerous streets.
“The storm that hit Sunday that caused the tornado though War Eagle didn’t really affect us at all except for the heavy amount of rain we received,” said Simon Wiley, public works director in Eureka Springs. “With that rain came a lot of washout of roads, gravel debris, that kind of thing.
“The real storm that affected us came Monday and caused a lot of downed trees and more rain, more washed-out roads.”
Despite it being a holiday, most of his staff reported to work on Monday to assist in removing trees blocking roads and cleaning up debris, Wiley said.
“We’re still working on it now,” Wiley said Wednesday. “I think we’ll be working on the cleanup through the week and hopefully be finished up by Friday.”
Wiley said his department has opened up an area near the public works office for tree debris.
“People can bring [debris] and drop it off,” he said. “Act 330 has stipulations on burning during disasters so we’re working with the Carroll County emergency manager to make sure we’re complying with that act.”
Some of the city’s parks fell victim to fallen trees and damage. Photos on the Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation Facebook page show many fallen trees and fence damage at the Bark Park.
“The Bark Park got annihilated,” the Facebook post reads. “Unfortunately this means we will have to close the park for the foreseeable future.”
Another post stated: “… there are trees down everywhere in all of our parks.”
Wiley said his staff will assist the parks department with cleanup once the public works portion of the clean up is wrapped up.
“I’ll gladly assist parks,” Wiley said. “Once we get everything wrapped up, and assuming we don’t have any sewer issues or water issues that we need to attend to, we will probably go pick up some of the [debris in the parks] and haul it down here for them.”
