Entergy Arkansas Restores 84,000 Customers in 24 Hours

07/14/2016

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Sally Graham||

2,000 Additional Workers Joining Restoration Effort with 54,000 Customers to Go

LITTLE ROCK – Entergy Arkansas line crews, contractors and tree trimmers have reclaimed a good portion of the service area impacted by severe thunderstorms, lightning and record-breaking wind gusts. In 24 hours, crews have safely restored more than half of the outages, down from a peak of 138,216 at 9:15 p.m. on July 14.

Joining the Entergy Arkansas crews are 2,000 additional workers from sister Entergy utilities, other utility companies and contractors. These include linemen, vegetation workers and support personnel. The crews began arriving throughout the day Friday.

“Many of our employees have been affected and they know what it’s like not only to lose power, but experience the dangers severe weather like this brings,” said Oscar Washington, vice president of customer service for Entergy Arkansas, Inc. “This is not just a restoration effort for us. It’s a matter of helping people get their lives back together as soon as possible under very trying times,” said Washington.

Linemen are working 16-hour days. Entergy follows a restoration plan that concentrates on first getting service restored to essential customers like hospitals, police and water facilities. Then, Entergy crews turn their attention to making repairs to electrical facilities that will return service to the largest number of customers in the shortest period of time, then the largest number and so on until power is restored to everyone.

Entergy scouts are still assessing damage. Based on reports so far, electrical equipment in more than 600 locations across the Entergy Arkansas service territory sustained damage.

For those who can take power, the majority of customers are expected to be restored by Sunday. Many will be on before that as repairs are completed. The Arkadelphia, Pulaski County and Hot Springs areas were hit the hardest, and we expect full recovery there to carry into Tuesday.

Safety of both the public and employees is priority No. 1. Customers are warned to stay away from downed power lines. To report a downed power line or a power outage, call 1-800-9OUTAGE. Please use the automated answering technology.

Cooling centers are available for customers to get relief from hot temperatures during outages if needed are being opened the following areas:

Little Rock

Dunbar Community Center
1001 W. 16^th Street
Saturday, July 16: 8:00am to 8:00pm
Sunday, July 17: 12:00pm to 7:00pm

Southwest Community Center
6401 Baseline Road # A.
Saturday, July 16: 8:00am to 8:00pm
Sunday, July 17: 12:00pm to 7:00pm

Hot Springs

Church of Christ multi-purpose building
948 Airport Road.
Hours of Operation are:
Saturday, July 16: 12:00pm to 7:00pm

Entergy Arkansas provides electricity to approximately 700,000 customers in 63 counties. Entergy Arkansas is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of approximately $11.5 billion and more than 13,000 employees.

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