Power outage numbers now dropping more rapidly

LITTLE ROCK, AR – The number of homes and businesses without power continues to drop as thousands of crews from 15 different states join restoration efforts. The latest outage numbers from Entergy show less than 70,000 customers without service, down from a high of 190,000. First Electric is reporting their outages down from a high of around 30,000 to just over 3,000.

The thousands of crews brought in from out of state to help are staging throughout central Arkansas. The Arkansas State Fairgrounds is hosting hundreds of crews. They fed breakfast to about 800 this morning and packed them a sack lunch to take with them as they left for power restoration assignments. Most won’t be back until after dark for dinner and some rest before going back out again.

Crews we talked to were from as far away as North Carolina. There are many others from Tennessee, Kentucky and about a dozen other states.

Entergy, Saturday morning, open a customer information center to answer questions and provide information for people still waiting for their service to be restored. It is located at 900 Louisiana Street in downtown Little Rock. Officials expect the center to remain open through Monday or Tuesday.