Thousands endure frigid temperatures without heat

Several thousand Northwest Arkansas residents endured rolling blackouts Tuesday, and about 2,300 customers in Pea Ridge lost service when pressure dropped in a Black Hills Energy natural gas service line.

Temperatures ranged from single digits to the high teens while gas company technicians worked to restore service.

The next winter storm moved in Tuesday night and was expected to dump another 4 to 6 inches of snow on the region, said Joe Sellers, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa.

Sellers said a reading of 20 degrees below zero Tuesday at Drake Field in Fayetteville is probably a record.

"It needs to be confirmed," Sellers said, noting that the previous record low was minus 18 degrees. "Someone will certify that the equipment was working properly and look at the temperature trends to make sure there were no anomalies and we'll calibrate the equipment."

High temperatures today and Thursday are forecast to be in the 20s with a low of 10 degrees tonight.

Pea Ridge Mayor Jackie Crabtree said the natural gas interruption hit most of the city about 10 a.m. "If you don't have an all-electric home or some way of heating with electricity, you don't have any heat," he said.

"The process of bringing customers back on to

the system requires several steps," said Chad Kinsley, vice president of operations for Black Hills in Arkansas. "We must first make sure all gas meters are off, then purge the system so it's ready for the reintroduction of the natural gas supply. Finally, our technicians will go door-to-door and relight each customer's gas appliances."

Updates on service restoration are available at www.blackhillsenergy.com/pea-ridge.

A warming station for residents was set up at the Pea Ridge Middle School, 1391 Weston St.

"What we're seeing in Arkansas is the most severe weather event in my lifetime," Gov. Asa Hutchinson, 70, said Tuesday during his weekly covid-19 media briefing.

"This is plaguing not just our state, but also our region, and that makes it even more complicated whenever you have Texas gas shortages, power shortages, Oklahoma as well," said Hutchinson. "The supply chain has impacted our state in Arkansas."

Hutchinson said 18,000 to 20,000 Arkansans were still without electricity early Tuesday afternoon.

"I know the utilities are working hard to get power restored," he said.

Rolling blackouts

Electricity was off for several hours for about 4,500 SWEPCO residents of Benton and Washington counties.

Peter Main, spokesman in Fayetteville for Southwestern Electric Power Co., said some controlled outages began about 7 a.m. and ended by 10:30 a.m.

"We continue our operations until we receive notice from Southwest Power Pool that our efforts have been successful and we've been able to reduce the load. This is an ongoing event. We recognize that creates uncertainty for our customers and we're working to limit the duration to a few hours. By rotating the areas we hope to limit the impact on any one area," Main said.

The Southwest Power Pool manages the electric grid across 14 central and western states including Arkansas and notified customers rolling outages were likely this week to prevent a larger system failure.

The possibility of outages extends to all of the electric utilities serving Northwest Arkansas, including the municipal systems in Bentonville and Siloam Springs.

Travis Matlock with Bentonville said the city is a wholesale customer of SWEPCO and will be notified by that company if outages are planned.

Holland Hayden with Siloam Springs said the city is supplied with power by the Grand River Dam Authority in Oklahoma and experienced some power outages.

Ashley Harris, vice president for marketing and communications for Ozarks Electric Cooperative, said about 2,400 customers were temporarily without power Tuesday morning because of weather conditions and not controlled outages.

The electric companies are posting notices of outages on websites and social media.

Main said customers should conserve energy.

"Even a small thing -- lowering the thermostat a few degrees, not using major appliances or turning off some lights -- multiplied by thousands of customers, can have an impact," he said.

Shelter from the storm

Agencies have kept people living in the elements out of the cold, and warming centers have opened for those temporarily without heat.

The Salvation Army's shelters and warming centers have averaged about 85 people staying overnight this week between the organization's locations in Fayetteville and Bentonville, said Joey Johnson, spokesman. That's excluding about 25 people in the organization's drug and rehabilitation program who regularly stay at the shelters, he said.

Another 75 or so residents will continue to stay at hotels in Fayetteville, Rogers and Bentonville through at least Friday, said Ryan Pearson, outreach navigator with the Northwest Arkansas Continuum of Care. Members of the continuum, along with staff at Salvation Army, 7 Hills Homeless Center and New Beginnings started visiting camps and shelters last week to give residents vouchers and transportation for hotel stays in anticipation of the dangerous conditions.

Pearson said he believes the organizations have found places for the people who need them most. However, he worries someone without a phone or a means of knowing what resources are available could always still be out there.

"That is the only concern I have at the moment because they have no way of knowing how to get in contact with either of the organizations for assistance," he said.

7 Hills has operated its day center at St. James Missionary Baptist Church on Willow Avenue with reduced hours this week. Chief Executive Officer Jessica Andrews said a handful of people sought refuge each day Monday and Tuesday, indicating people are being cared for.

"We're playing it hour by hour right now," she said.

Anyone needing help can call the Salvation Army's Fayetteville office at 521-2151, its after-hours number at 251-0857, or the Bentonville office at 271-9545.

Updates on the 7 Hills day center's hours can be found at fb.com/7hillscenter or by calling 310-5596.

The West Fork Fire Department posted on social media it's open for anyone who needs to get warm.

Road woes

Dave Parker, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said workers on Tuesday were plowing main highways down to 1 or 2 inches of snow, then applying rock salt or brine to facilitate melting. Then the crews could shift attention to secondary roads, he said.

"That allows us to use our resources wisely," he said.

He said the storm that began last night was the third round of winter weather in a week. An ice storm caused problems on Thursday, then the snowstorm on Monday.

"This may be the biggest punch of all," Parker said early Tuesday afternoon. "To throw everything down at it today just doesn't make sense because we're going to be at it again in 10 hours."

Parker said the powdery snow that fell Monday was easier for motorists to drive in than ice.

"Ice is just a totally different game," he said. "You can't drive on ice. You can drive in this stuff."

But, he noted, the snow that melts on roads during the day will likely freeze at night causing more hazardous driving conditions.

Annette Beard contributed to this report. Beard can be reached by email at [email protected]. Tom Sissom can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWATom.