Jefferson county Judge Gerald Robinson stated Monday afternoon that county officials are still assessing damage following Sunday night’s storms, and that it could still take a few days to assess all of the damage across the county due to the severity of the storms.
“Right now, we are still assessing all of the damage, and right now we are up to about 30 to 40 homes with the majority of them severely damaged, and we are still counting,” said Robinson. “We are still getting reports in. We are still going through trees in the roads, trees across houses and things. So, it’s been pretty bad.”
“I’ve assessed damages here in Humphrey, also Altheimer, Wabbaseka,” Robinson said. “We’ve had several trees and things down and some homes damaged in each one of those towns. We haven’t even made it up to the Redfield way yet, but in the city from all the way over on Ridgeway road, down on Highway 63, and Highway 65. We have damage all over the county. We are just trying to get to all of it and assess it, but the numbers are getting on up there.”
Entergy Arkansas put out a press release Monday saying damages in Arkansas are comparable to the damages suffered during the 2000 ice storms. Robinson said he had not seen the press release yet, but he has been made aware that many residents may be without power for a few days.
“What I was told from my OEM we may be without power for a few days,” said Robinson. “
Robinson said he has never seen damage as bad as he is seeing during his assessments of the county.
“It’s bad,” said Robinson. “I’ve never seen it myself. Even as Sheriff I never saw it as bad as it is today, and we are still counting. Some people haven’t been able to call it in because they have had problems with cell phone service and stuff like that, so we’re still assessing. So, the numbers are probably going to be up there pretty high.”
Robinson also stated he believes Jefferson county will have millions of dollars worth of damage.
“When this whole thing is all said and done it’s going to be millions of dollars of damage,” said Robinson.
