JACKSONVILLE, Ark. – In Jacksonville and surrounding communities thousands are still without power following Sunday’s storm. Entergy officials say they’re estimating several more days until power is restored to customers in the area.
Officials with Entergy say the Jacksonville and Cabot area sustained significant damage in Sunday’s storms.
Crews are having to replace 103 broken poles, 128 spans of wire, 66 transformers that need to be replaced and 10 broken cross-arms.
Restoration efforts are underway Tuesday and crews and resources from neighboring states have been brought in to help with those efforts. Over 140 line and vegetation workers are working to safely restore power in Jacksonville.
Around 6,300 customers are still without power in Jacksonville, Cabot including Sherwood. However, Entergy expects 90% of these customers will have power restored by the end of the day Wednesday. But, outages for some customers in heavily impacted areas could see restoration times extended.
Staci Thompson said her emotions ran high when she saw that her power possibly wouldn’t turn on until Thursday.
“I couldn’t believe it, I was like wow I wanted to cry,” Thompson said.
Officials with Entergy went on to say that vegetation damage is extensive in these areas, and everything has been tough to access because the vegetation (tree) damage must be cleared up before repairs can be made.
They also said another challenge for crews is working in the heat and seeing a lot of backyard and rear lot damage that slows down restoration efforts.
Thompson said her power is still out after trees came down in her backyard hitting some of the powerlines and without power trying to sleep was grueling
“I could not (go to sleep), it’s too hot, the temperature it’s really hot, it’s just been hot during the day and at night,” Thompson said.
Ken Murdaugh says he has opened all the windows on his home, and it still does not make a difference with the heat.
“It’s just something that unless you have air conditioning or window fans, unless you have electricity you just can’t bare it,” Murdaugh said.
He says he also tries to stay outside sometimes because it’s cooler than in his house.
“Because you don’t have fans or anything to use since you don’t have electricity unless you have a generator which I don’t have one,” Murdaugh said.
He says he is considering staying with family until his power is back on and Thompson says she is grateful her mom’s power turned back on so she and her family could stay there.
Both said they’re hoping their power will turn on sooner than later.