Flooding, power outages and damage left as severe weather sweeps through Arkansas
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – In the past few days, major storms tore through the Natural State and caused tornadoes, flooding and large-sized hail. Storms that moved through on Wednesday and continued through the state over the weekend left thousands without power, multiple injured, many trees down and untold amounts of damage.
According to the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, there have been 13 injuries and one death, a five-year-old child, reported.
As of Sunday evening, PowerOutage.us reports that 42,390 customers in the state are still without power including 27,371 in Pulaski County, 8,230 in Saline County and 3,547 in Hot Spring County.
Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. said in a post on social media that Entergy expects an additional 62 crews to be out on Sunday on top of the 80 from yesterday, with approximately 750 team members working to restore power in the state.
The mayor also said that crews are actively cleaning debris, downed trees and standing water from roadways to ensure safe travel across the city, which will continue throughout the day.
Families in Little Rock’s Meadowcliff neighborhood near South University are among those cleaning up after this week's storms. One woman said her home will have to be demolished after a tree fell through it during Saturday’s high winds.
"We have an awning that goes over our front window, as soon as I saw it flip up, I told my boys to move away from the window, and everything came down,” Jessica Buckthorpe said.
On Greenway Drive in southwest Little Rock, multiple trees were down, taking out power lines along with them. One chainsaw operator described how a spontaneous gathering of neighbors set to work to clear a large tree from a road right after yesterday's high winds moved through.
"One guy stopped, another one came, by the time it ended up there was eight of us,” Holsey Thompson said. “We got the whole thing cut up and a lot of people came through and thanked us and stuff, it was just a community thing.”
In addition to damage from downed trees, high water has also become a problem on roadways across the state with the Arkansas Department of Transportation reporting about 70 highway closures due to high water.
There were also reports in northeast Arkansas of two train derailments that were caused by flood waters and powerful winds early Saturday morning.
On Sunday afternoon, the Arkansas Red Cross announced that it has opened an additional shelter in West Memphis to help residents affected by flooding and severe weather. The Red Cross also reported that the shelter located at the historic Old Hardy Gym remains open to those affected in the community as well.
As a result of this week’s storms and the damage left, FEMA announced on Saturday that President Donald Trump has approved help for Arkansas after Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders requested a major disaster declaration just ahead of the storms.
from KARK https://ift.tt/lKDe5A4
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