Thousands without power in Dallas County

Dallas County, Arkansas – People in the southern sections of Arkansas, in particular, are without power Thursday night due to the winter weather.

The number of power outages in Dallas County on Thursday was over 4,000, according to Entergy and Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. In the county, there are already over 3,800 outages as of Thursday night at 8 p.m.

74,000 consumers in south Arkansas are without electricity.

Power lines, trees, and tree limbs are falling because of the built-up ice, according to representatives from both businesses.

Every person we spoke with in the little village of Sparkman had been without electricity for more than 12 hours, with several people reporting that it had been out since Wednesday night.

“We desperately want it,” Sparkman resident Ray Anne Thomason said.

Ray White Lumber Company is owned by Donny White, who also resides in Sparkman.

“We didn’t get to run the mill today due to the power outage,” he said. “It went off about 6:00 this morning.”

Despite the frigid temperatures and ice circumstances, White noted that today is the only day this week that they were unable to work. Thankfully, his timber was not significantly damaged.

“A lot of the people around town have been calling and asking if I’ve heard anything because a lot of our people in town don’t have generators,” he said. “They’re cold.”

All over Sparkman, trees grow on the sides of the roads or hang low overhead. On Thursday, Thomason and her two sons drove about town in her car for a portion of the day to remain warm.

“It was pretty scary,” Thomason said. “The trees were just hanging over the roads. It was pretty scary because at any time they could have fallen.”

White claimed that he is focused on what might have occurred despite the disaster in Sparkman.

“If we would have had another two or three degrees lower, we could have really had devastation,” he said.

White and Thomason noted numerous trucks and lineman working on the powerlines across the town, and they expressed gratitude for their assistance.

A representative for Entergy advises all customers to sign up for text alerts online in order to receive more information about anticipated restoration times.

According to a representative for Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, more than 125 lineman from other businesses have traveled to the state’s hardest-hit areas to assist with power restoration.

On Friday, linemen will resume their work as soon as it is light out in order to finish replacing what was lost.