As many as a dozen thunderstorm warnings were issued by the National Weather Service as a line of severe weather swept through the Twin Lakes Area shortly after 1 Friday afternoon bringing with it high winds and leaving behind downed trees and power lines.
Here at KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot, we received numerous calls throughout the county reporting loss of power from both Entergy and the North Arkansas Electric Coooperative.
Entergy advised 2,590 customers were without power about around seven a.m., with an estimated time of Saturday morning for restoration of service.
North Arkansas Electric Cooperative crews were responding to multiple storm-related outages throughout the service territory. Most have been caused by high winds and trees knocking down power lines.
At seven a.m., the co-op advised 149 members were without service. The majority of these outages are in the co-ops Mountain Home district.
The scattered nature of the outages is challenging NAEC crews. Mel Coleman with NAEC advised about 4:30 that it could be Saturday morning before power is restored to all co-op customers.
Members experiencing an outage are asked to report it to NAECs dispatch center by calling 870-895-3221, 870-425-2141 or 870-994-2191.
Current outages may be viewed at outageviewer.com.
Baxter County Judge Mickey Pendergrass says road crews were working feverisly to open all roads by dark Friday.
The biggest challenge is working with the loss of power.
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Judge Pendergrass says there have been reports of structural damage in the Norfork area. However, his crews have not yet made an assessment.
In Marion County, Office of Emergency Services Director Keith Edmonds, says county road crews were busy clearing roadways.
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Edmonds says as of about 4 they believed all roadways had been cleared. One fire department was on the scene of a tree that was on fire due to downed power lines.
He says they are not aware of any injuries or structural damages from the storm.
He says should residents encounter trees blocking roadway, they should contact the Marion County Sheriff’s Officed at 870.449-4236. They are aware of numerous trees down in ditch lines. However, residents should only call if trees are blocking roadways.
As clean-up from the storms begin Friday afternoon, Cotter Mayor Peggy Hammack has a message for Cotter residents.
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