As many in the Deltaplex area suffered power outages due to the Easter Sunday storms both Entergy and C&L Electric Cooperatives have been working hard to restore power to their customers.
As of Tuesday morning, most Entergy Arkansas customers have had power restored, while C&L Electric continues to work to restore power as many parts of their grid were ravished by the storms.
C&L Electric CEO Greg Smith joined the Will and Greg show Tuesday morning to talk about the power restoration process and more.
Smith said that they are estimating that around 500 customers are still without power.
“This morning we are estimating that about 500 are still out, and that is scattered throughout the eight counties that we serve, so we are narrowing it down,” said Smith.
Information came out saying that C&L tickets were cleared daily and customers need to call in to report their outages daily. State Representative Ken Bragg was given this information as was the DeltaplexNews.com newsroom on Monday. Smith said that is incorrect, and that some misinformation was spread due to this.
“There was some misinformation that got out,” said Smith. “How the call center works, if you make a call and report your outage that outage stays in our system, and you only need to call one time. If you leave a call back number, when we think you should be on, the system will automatically call you and you can press one if it’s been restored, or two if you are still out. If you press two it notifies us that you are still out, it comes directly to our system, and that is all you have to do.”
Smith said he believes the misinformation came from out of town crews that are working with local C&L workers to help restore power.
“The ticket situation, I believe that may have come from some of the out of town people because they work their systems differently,” said Smith. “We have our own employees with these out of town guys, and they know what those guys need to work on. We don’t give each crew tickets.”
Some customers have been frustrated because there are no restoration date estimates put out by C&L, but Smith said they purposely do not put out dates, but they are down to completing jobs in individual yards.
“We purposely don’t put out dates and times because inevitably something will come up and we will just disappoint people,” Smith said. “We are down to individual services, getting trees off of people’s service lines in their yards, and that is the slower process.”
C&L Electric posted an update to their Facebook page Tuesday morning showing areas they are working in.
4/21/2020 – Power Restoration Update
Crews continue to work in the following areas:
- Hwy 114 west of Star City
• Kepler Rd, Kelly Rd, Addison, Evergreen, Hwy 212,
Alexander Rd, Gentry Rd, Garnett, Lancaster Rd – Lincoln County
• Pinebergen area in Jefferson county
• Griffith Springs Arrowhead Old Star City Hwy
• Feenyville area in Lincoln/Cleveland County
• Hwy 63 south of Pine Bluff (Rogers Rd East and West)
• Dogwood Forest – Curtis Rd, Jacks Rd, Stewart Rd, Hackwood Rd – Jefferson County
• Bradley 18 E and 18 W
• Hwy 189 – Bradley County
• Dyer Rd, Shady Grove, Marks Cemetery, Hwy 63 (Pansy)
• County Line Rd 8N in Bradley County
• New Edinburg, Perry Lane, Rainey Road, Hwy 189, Bryant Rd, Crane Lake, Hollis-Special Road, Harmony Church, Rye Community – Bradley County/Cleveland County
• Single phase lines from the Palmyra substation in Lincoln/Cleveland counties.
• Big Creek in the Herbine area in Cleveland county
• Hwy 8 and 189 in Bradley/Cleveland county
• Beanfield Rd in Bradley county
Update for Emergency Restoration Project in Farindale area (Dallas County and Northwest corner of Cleveland County)
- Crews have completed setting 2.5 miles of poles and will be pulling wire today. The mobile substation is en route to location.
Thank you for your patience as we work to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
