Most Damage in East Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  - Entergy Arkansas has mobilized an expanded workforce of 2,600 to repair damage to the electrical system caused by a winter storm last night. Power outages peaked around 7:30 a.m. today at 27,600. By 4 p.m. workers had reduced that number to 15,870.

Entergy Arkansas expects to have the majority of customers back on late Tuesday, although it will be late Wednesday before service is restored to some of the more difficult cases in the hardest-hit areas. Hardest-hit areas, all in east Arkansas, are the counties of Phillips, Crittendon, Mississippi, Saint Francis, and Craighead. That includes the cities of Helena, Marion, Blytheville, Hughes, Marked Tree and Forrest City.

Skies are clearing today, but temperatures are expected to remain below freezing throughout today and tonight.

"We are grateful that the damage from this storm wasn't any worse than it was, but 26,000 outages is more than bad enough, especially if you're one of those doing without electricity in these cold temperatures," said Hugh McDonald, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Arkansas, Inc. "Fortunately, we had good advance warning of this storm and had 2,600 workers ready to respond quickly. We pledge to work diligently until the last repair has been completed."

Stay away from downed power lines. If you see a power line on the ground and suspect Entergy doesn't know about it already, call 1-800-9-OUTAGE to report dangerous situations, as well as outages.

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 more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation's leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 14,000 employees.

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