A thunderstorm blew across the Pine Bluff area Monday morning, bringing with it some damaging winds that sparked some power outages and uprooted at least one tree.
Over an inch of rain fell between approximately 6:45-7:45 a.m. a few hours after a brief electrical storm. Jefferson County Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Karen Quarles said Monday afternoon that a tree fell onto a house at 1602 W. 17th Ave. and caused a power outage. Quarles said the house was unoccupied and no one was incurred in the incident. She was uncertain how much damage the house had sustained.
The Commercial received a report of a lightning strike as well, but Quarles said she had no knowledge of such an incident.
One power outage still had about 90 Entergy customers without electrical service about 5:30 p.m. Entergy Regional Manager for Customer Service Diane Tatum said power was estimated to be restored “before the end of the evening.”
Earlier, about 160 customers had lost service in areas primarily between West Sixth to West Ninth avenues from Walnut to Plum streets, 11 around West 15th Avenue and Poplar Street, and five along Highway 270 west of White Hall. A daycare and the Arkansas Department of Human Services were impacted by the power loss.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“We lost some other circuits due to equipment failure that was related to the storm,” Tatum said.
At 4:53 p.m., electricity was shut off for seven minutes in an area stretching from The Commercial office at West Third Avenue and Beech Street to the courthouse and the business district around Barraque Street.
Tatum said Entergy had to disconnect power at that time to correct a problem that occurred on Fourth Avenue near the MK Distributors beer distributorship at 310 S. Linden. Tatum said a “cross-arm” fell off a power pole and caused a small fire. Entergy workers turned the power back on after the fire was extinguished.