For only the second time in its 132-year history, the Forrest City Times-Herald missed a publication day Tuesday.
Both times, the reason was the weather -- Tuesday morning's severe storms, and the ice storm of December 2000.
Many other outages were reported around the region, but most were back on today and almost all are expected to be back on by tonight.
Today's edition of the Times-Herald will combine the Tuesday and Wednesday editions.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
The storm which crashed through the Mid-South Tuesday morning caught just about everyone by surprise with its fury, including the electric companies.
Thousands of people were without power for most of yesterday, including the Times-Herald, and although most have had their power restored, many are still waiting.
"A lot of times we'll have radar notification that a storm is coming through," said Mike Davis, customer service manager for Entergy. "And we will be geared up. A lot of times we'll have people in the area, ready with immediate response. But sometimes during July -- or the summer months -- these things can come up rather suddenly, without very much warning. When I went to bed Monday night, I had no idea that we were going to have something of this magnitude at daylight the next morning."
He said he personally has never experienced wind and rain any harder.
It didn't take long for the losses to mount up.
"We lost five or six transmission structures in the Hughes-Horseshoe Lake area -- the lines that carry the extreme high transmission voltage," he said. "We're still working. We've got it isolated, and we're rerouting the power. But we're working to get those back in service."
He said from a distribution standpoint, there were 8,300 Entergy customers without electricity, and an area that includes Brinkley, Forrest City, Wynne and Hughes.
"By 10 o'clock last night, we were down to 2,300; we had restored about 6,000 of them," Davis said. "Today, we intend to wrap up the majority of laterals and get everyone back on. There may be a few isolated situations."
Davis said there are 55 to 60 electrical workers in this area from all over the state, as well as tree trimming crews.
There were still about 1,000 people in Forrest City and the Forrest City area without power, according to Davis. Some of those may have had their meters pulled out and will need the assistance of electricians.
According to Carl Horton of Woodruff Electric Cooperative, about 5,500 customers were without power.
"They worked until about 1 o'clock this morning, and at this time we still have 75 to 100 people still out. And they are very scattered," said Horton. "We're hoping to get all the rest of them back on sometime today."
He said Woodruff lost about 20 poles, but said most of the damage was from limbs and trees falling on lines.
Davis urged people to stay away from downed power lines.
"Ninety-nine percent of the time, it might be safe," he said. "But we want to stay on the side of caution. So family, friends, children need to stay away from downed power lines."
He said the normal layman doesn't know the difference between a high voltage line, a house line, a TV cable line or a telephone line, so the best thing is simply to avoid touching.
He also said while the rain and wind were as bad as he's seen, overall it wasn't the worst storm he's seen, and he said he wasn't talking about the ice storm of 2000.
"The ice storm of February 1994," he said. "That was the worst."
It was not known as of press time how many cable TV customers
lost service as a result of the storm.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
For one St. Francis County family of four, yesterday's storm may have taken their home and some of their memories, but it didn't take their lives.
Brandi Maxwell and her two daughters were rudely awakened Tuesday morning when a large oak tree in the yard came crashing into the bedroom where the three were sleeping.
"We were in bed, and Brent (Maxwell's husband) was in the shower getting ready for work when the first limb came through the window. I pushed the kids down onto the floor and dove on top of them, and then the tree came through the roof, right on top of the bed. We're pretty lucky to be alive," said Maxwell. "We lost some material things, but they can be replaced. It's a blessing that we're alive," Maxwell said.
A Hughes man was also reportedly injured Tuesday, after being electrocuted by a wire that had fallen onto his vehicle. According to a report from the Associated Press, Hughes Mayor Donnie Mooney said that the man was injured attempting to leave his car after the wire fell on it.
According to St. Francis County Sheriff Dave Parkman, the primary focus of attention for deputies was damage control on county roads which were blocked due to downed trees.
In Forrest City, the Police Department spent much of their efforts controlling traffic according to FCPD Chief Clarence McNeary.
"Our biggest focus was on making sure that traffic flow was controlled with all of the lights and power out. We had men putting out stop signs where they were needed and we also had officers out directing traffic and doing anything we could to help," said McNeary.
McNeary also explained the use of the warning sirens. "Even though we never sighted a tornado, due to the severity of the winds, the strength of the storms and when it happened, we felt that we should err on the side of caution and try to warn people. If we had it to do again, I would hope that we would try to keep people safe."
The day for fire department officials was best described by Chief Dan Curtner when he said this morning, "It was a pretty busy day." According to Curtner, the fire department responded to 11 calls yesterday and worked three fires, the most serious of which was $50,000 in damage to a house on Newcastle Road. According to a report from the fire department, the fire started after lightning struck the house, causing the attic to ignite.
Along the interstate systems, Troopers with Arkansas State Police Troop D had nine accidents along Interstates 40 and 55, and Highway 119 that could be attributed to the storm, according to Troop Commander Nathaniel Jackson.
According to Jackson, Troopers worked three personal injury
accidents on I-55; four property accidents and one personal injury
accident on I-40 and one personal injury accident on Hwy. 119
in a one hour period 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Some farms east of Crowley's Ridge were visibly hard hit after Tuesday's early morning storm, but according to St. Francis County Extension Agent Justin Hensley, much of the crop damage will have to wait to be accurately assessed.
Hensley said Tuesday's storm damaged corn fields in the county causing "bare places" in several fields.
"We haven't really been able to assess damage to crops yet, but we saw a few corn fields yesterday that had bare spots that you could see from the road where the corn had been pushed down by the high winds. That may cause the harvest not to be as efficient as it would have been," Hensley said.
The area rice crop may have also been hurt by yesterday's storm, but that damage may not be seen immediately according to Hensley. "We'll probably see some yield loss on rice from blanking and reddening of our rice crops. We could also see an increase in our blast problems from the rain," he said.
Area farmers may also have future problems from damages suffered to grain bins and irrigation systems which were damaged from the powerful winds. According to Hensley, damages to some of the center pivots throughout the county could cause problems later this summer.
Elsewhere in the county, county road crews and crews from NEARCO were busy Tuesday clearing debris from county roads, but St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco said that overall, the county was lucky.
According to Cisco, the only problems noticed by county crews were due to tree limbs that had fallen across roads along Crowley's Ridge.
"Most of our problems were due to trees and limbs that fell on roads up in the hills. Our crews got out, and we even utilized NEARCO and their boom trucks, to clear a lot of the roads out. We did have some wind damage to homes, but for the most part, we were lucky out in the county. Most of the damage that we have seen was here in Forrest City where there was a larger concentration of homes and businesses," Cisco said.
According to Forrest City Mayor Larry Bryant, damage to trees and power lines were the primary problems faced by city officials, but the combined efforts of the Forrest City Police and Fire Department, along with public works officials, had most city streets cleared by yesterday afternoon.
"Everyone pitched in to help with the storm including myself, and I even saw Councilman Hancock out clearing limbs off of streets so the cleanup went well, and we got out and got the job done. The Department of Public Works employees got out and worked in conjunction with the other departments, and we got stop signs up where lights were out. We really need to take our hats off to those guys, because they came in early and worked late to make sure that our city was safe for the citizens," Bryant said.
According to Bryant, as many as 8,000 Forrest Citians were without lights for portions of the day yesterday, and he said that Entergy officials said this morning that those still without power today should be back on today. Bryant also asked that citizens follow normal procedures with any debris from the storm.
"Most people in Forrest City know our routine as far as debris goes, so if they'll pile any limbs and such on the curb, and not on the street, in a pile separate from such things as couches and other garbage, then we'll get to it. We'll have both of the city's chippers running along with our boom trucks and we just ask that citizens to pitch in to help clean up debris in their neighborhoods," Bryant said.
Echoing the city's sentiments, Cisco said that it was not in the works for the county to file for disaster assistance at this time because the primary damage was done to trees and not structures.
According to officials with the National Weather Service, the
damage from Tuesday's storm was caused by straight line winds
which were reported in Memphis to range from 70 to 100 miles per
hour.
By SHANNON NICKS
T-H Staff Writer
The Memphis area was hardest hit during the powerful storms that ripped through Eastern Arkansas and into Tennessee early Tuesday morning, causing some Memphians to seek refuge elsewhere until power could be restored to many residences.
As a result, many people have sought refuge locally. Forrest City hotels reported an increased flow of business from people seeking shelter in the area.
Several hotels were booked solid as of this morning, while others are continuing to reserve rooms. Though some of this business is attributed to local residents seeking electricity, the majority of business has come from out-of-towners.
Jessica Young, who works the front desk at the Econo Lodge, said, "We normally have about 30 people to check in each night, but we had at least 60 last night. Some were locals, but guests were mostly out of Tennessee."
These out-of-towners also included Entergy crewmen who have been brought in to help repair damages.
Mary Lou Thomas, General Manager at the Holiday Inn, said, "We have had several people from Entergy check in. They began arriving around 3 p.m., yesterday and continued to arrive throughout the night."
However, not all of the local hotels could accommodate this increased flow of business.
Manager Marnie Ragsdale of the Hampton Inn said, "We receive so much corporate business, being right off the interstate between Memphis and Little Rock, that we were already full before the storms began. Even still, we did have many people who were traveling on the interstate to come in during the storm. Then, later that afternoon there was another flow of people, both locals and out-of-towners, who were looking for rooms."
Although Forrest City hotels were a place of refuge for many people, several hotels failed to escape damages.
Holiday Inn reported damage to their roof, pool area and fencing,
and the Comfort Inn received damages to their sign, roof and landscaping.
All of the local hotels reported power outages at some point on
Tuesday.
A Farmer's Market, which was to have had its grand opening Saturday, July 19, at the Forrest City Civic Center, encountered a glitch when the finish line of the Mightymite Triathlon was also put at the Civic Center..
However, according to the Arkansas Community of Excellence (ACE) program's Community Beautification Committee, the market will continue to be open every Thursday and Saturday, including this Thursday, July 24, from 7 a.m. until noon during the growing season. The market will be held at the Civic Center.
Growers from three counties are expected to participate with their fresh, home-grown produce.