BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Update: Benton County has created a new website containing all information about reporting damage, removing debris, volunteering, community resources, or facility closures— click here for more details.
Multiple deadly tornadoes tore through Benton County in the early morning hours of May 26, causing widespread damage and massive power outages.
Benton County Emergency Management confirmed that trees and powerlines were down in Decatur just minutes after confirming a tornado on the ground.
As of June 6, forty people in Benton County are still without power.
One Rogers resident said being without power since Sunday's storms has been challenging.
"It's been very taxing and stressful and I couldn't get home yesterday," Rogers resident Debbie Dick said. "There are trees down everywhere. We had two trees fall into our house. We've been without power since the storm hit. We do have a generator [and] are able to have some power that way. But it's been a challenge."
What to know
Carroll Electric
Right after the storms, around 64,000 Carroll Electric customers were without power.
Carroll Electric told its customers last week to "plan for multiple days, some cases more than a week without power." The company's crews are working to repair downed power lines and clear debris to restore power fully. Updates will be provided on its website.
On May 28, Carroll Electric provided an update, saying it was able to restore power to all transmission lines. Carroll Electric said 1,000 crew members, along with outside help, were working on restoration efforts during the week.
According to Carroll Electric, the outside help came from crews from at least 11 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas.
A week after the storms, on June 3, Carroll Electric said less than 25 customers were without power.
"We saw tremendous progress over the weekend that far exceeded our expectations," Carroll Electric said.
According to the electric company, the storms resulted in around 1,200 broken poles and other significant utility damages.
Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO)
As of 8 a.m. on Monday, June 3, Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) said they have restored 99% of customers' power who lost power during last week's storms.
At the peak of the outages last week, SWEPCO said there were around 19,000 customers without power.
Since Sunday's storms, SWEPCO assessors located around 500 broken poles, more than 10 miles of downed power lines, at least 100 damaged transformers, and more than 750 unique repair locations.
However, SWEPCO said customers with damaged service entrances must have a licensed electrician repair any damage before power can be restored.
In the meantime, they advise customers to stay far from downed trees, power lines, and broken utilities as they can be very dangerous. Updates on SWEPCO's restoration will be on its website.
The power outages started at around 3:30 a.m. and initially affected over 73,000 customers only in Benton County. Service providers impacted at the time included Carroll Electric, Bentonville Light and Water, among others.
As the sun came out, the numbers for Benton County outages went down, but Madison and Carroll County were added, totaling 79,000.
Bentonville officials said restoration time depends on the area, the damage, and how it happened.
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