With the number of power failures creeping down steadily throughout the day Monday, many Arkansans turned their focus to cleaning up yards and cleaning out refrigerators after the weekend storms.
Work crews were still out Monday righting downed power lines and reconnecting power to homes across Arkansas, but the number of customers without power had dropped from more than 64,000 Saturday morning to 4,600, according to the Entergy Arkansas website. Pulaski County, where the majority of the power failures occurred, still had approximately 4,200 customers without power as of 5 p.m. Monday.
The majority of those customers were expected to have power restored by the end of Monday, according to the Entergy website.
But for many like Gilbert and Mardi O'Dell, whose power returned at approximately 10:30 a.m. Monday, the focus is now on cleaning up and restocking after the storm.
"I spent all day yesterday on my roof and in my yard," Gilbert O'Dell said while unloading groceries at his Vista Drive home in Little Rock. "It was a pretty long day ... just cleaning it all up."
O'Dell, who moved to the Spring Valley Manor area just over a year ago, said the storm Friday night was one of the worst he had seen.
"It was just a nightmare. We have these big bay windows, and you could just see the trees doing this," O'Dell said, waving his hands wildly. "You could hear limbs beating on the roof."
Thankfully, O'Dell said, there was no damage to the house itself -- just a big mess for them to clean up.
While Gilbert O'Dell cleared the leaves and branches from the roof and lawn, Mardi O'Dell spent the day clearing out their refrigerator, which had not been powered since Friday night.
"Oh yeah, it was gross," Mardi O'Dell said. "Everything had to go. The only thing that was in my fridge this morning was a Gatorade bottle."
Mardi O'Dell went shopping to restock the fridge Monday morning but had to travel the winding, lakeside Cooper Orbit Road instead of her usual route.
The northern entrance to Cooper Orbit Road was still blocked off Monday, with several downed power lines crossing the rural roadway.
Little Rock Fire Department Battalion Chief Vaiden Holmes, who was out Monday afternoon to see how far along the repair was, said the road had been blocked off since the storm.
"They put some of the poles back up this morning," Holmes said. "Now they've just got to get the cables and telephone lines up, hopefully."
The weekend storms had put some pressure on the Fire Department, too, Holmes said, with multiple calls about downed power lines, fallen trees and small fires caused by live power lines.
"We've been pretty busy this weekend, too," he said. "Some people were trapped in their houses. There were some fires caused by limbs on power lines. Entergy, though -- they've been busy."
Entergy spokesman Kerri Case said approximately 1,000 workers were deployed over the weekend, working on downed lines, cleaning up debris and restoring power. More than 300 of those employees were bused in from Louisiana and Texas to help with the workload.
Many people, instead of waiting out the power failure like the O'Dells, fled to the comfort of a hotel.
"It seemed like every hotel in Little Rock and North Little Rock was booked up," said Briana Parker, front desk supervisor at Courtyard Little Rock West. "I was calling to see where I could send people, and I just I couldn't find any places to send them."
Parker said the hotel went from 30 percent occupancy to absolutely full in less than two hours Saturday morning, and that the hotel remained busy even through Monday.
"Usually Sundays are our slowest days, with normally about 20 percent of the room taken," Parker said. "On Sunday, we still had 65% occupancy."
Other hotels, like Tru by Hilton Little Rock West, said they were booked and overbooked throughout the weekend.
"We have been really, really, really swamped," said Marina McElrath, front desk operator at Tru. "Normally we don't sell out over the weekend, but we have sold out every day and are selling out again today."
McElrath said all 82 rooms at the hotel were booked, with many sporting multiple family members.
"We had well more than 100 each day," she said.
Carol Scheibner, front desk operator with Embassy Suites by Hilton, said it was already close to full Saturday because of a children's nutrition conference in the hotel, but that any rooms it had available were booked early Saturday.
Local authorities have been checking to ensure public facilities are up and running after the storm.
Glen Shook, director of school facilities' maintenance for the Pulaski County Special School District, was continuing to check district properties for damage Monday afternoon, but at that point, the most severe problems found were at Robinson Elementary School, 21600 Arkansas 10, and Baker Elementary School, 15001 Kanis Road, both in Little Rock.
Several fallen trees and downed limbs brought down power transmission lines and the front-entrance awning at the Robinson campus.
At Baker, some downed trees and straight-line winds damaged mobile portable storage units that were used for the prekindergarten program. Also damaged were some fencing and playground equipment, Shook said.
No roof damage had been found as of mid-afternoon.
Multiple sites throughout the far-flung district were without power during the weekend, but all were restored by noon Monday.
Little Rock School District spokesman Pamela Smith said there had been no property damage in that district.
Information for this article was provided by Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 07/24/2018