LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Entergy Arkansas is nearing completion of the massive restoration effort that has been ongoing since Christmas.

There were just under 2,000 customers without service at 8 p.m. At the peak, 194,000 Entergy Arkansas customers had lost power. Just over 100,000 of them were in Little Rock, while another 41,000 were in Malvern and Hot Springs. The rest, in varying degrees, were all over the Entergy Arkansas service territory.

The operations team has begun ramping down the nearly 5,000 workers called in to help restore power to customers after the storm. As outages become fewer and more isolated, fewer workers are needed to manage the remaining outages.

"Customers may begin to see visiting crews moving on to work in other affected areas or begin to travel home," said Brady Aldy, director of operations of Entergy Arkansas, Inc. "We will release work crews only once they are no longer needed."

Also, because traffic has dwindled to only a few visitors, Entergy has closed the customer information centers it opened in Malvern and Hot Springs. The Little Rock location will be open Tuesday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"I want to thank our customers for their patience, understanding, and words of encouragement during this difficult time," said Hugh McDonald, president and chief executive officer of Entergy Arkansas, Inc. "And to those who were frustrated with the amount of time they were without power, we understand."

McDonald continued, "As soon as the magnitude of this storm became apparent, we launched a massive effort to get everybody back on as safely and quickly as possible. The amount of work to be done was enormous. But we've done this before. We know what to do, and we will continue doing it, step by step, until the job is finished. I commend the Entergy employees, contractors and other responders for the excellent work they performed under difficult circumstances."

Entergy Arkansas provides electricity to approximately 700,000 customers in 63 counties. Entergy Arkansas is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, which is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy Corporation''s utilities own and operate 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. The Entergy utilities deliver electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy Corporation has annual revenues of more than $11 billion and approximately 15,000 employees.



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