Severe weather that stretched across Arkansas overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday has done little to curb cleanup and recovery efforts in the state, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
The governor spoke alongside U.S. Sen. John Boozman, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr., other local officials and a Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator during a news conference at Immanuel Baptist Church City Center, 315 N. Shackleford Road.
“Despite the fact that we’ve had weather challenges, we have not seen the energy or the effort from people that are out there removing debris and offering assistance slow down in any way,” Sanders said.
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The state hadn’t heard a response Wednesday afternoon on Sanders’ request that the federal government cover all state and local recovery expenses for the first 30 days after Friday’s storms.
However, Sanders added, “We feel pretty good about it so far.”
Boozman, who represented the congressional delegation at Wednesday’s conference, said they want to ensure the federal response is “as it should be.” However, he praised FEMA administrator Tony Robinson’s efforts to provide support to Arkansas.
“It’s going to take awhile,” Boozman said. “It’s just going to take all of us continuing to work together.”
FEMA assistance
During the conference, Robinson urged residents affected by Friday’s storms to call their insurance provider if they have one, and then to apply for assistance by calling 1-800-621-3362 or visiting disasterassistance.gov.
The City Center is one of three disaster recovery centers in the state. Another is in North Little Rock at 1300 Pike Ave., while the third is in Wynne at 702 U.S. 64.
The centers will allow people to meet with FEMA representatives for help in such areas as insurance, identification and Small Business Administration loans.
The federal administrator said that people who call should have their driver’s license and insurance policy information ready.
Each of the state’s three disaster recovery centers has representatives from state agencies available to help people get those documents if they were lost in the storms, Sanders said.
Robinson also highlighted FEMA’s partnership with the Small Business Administration. He said that some people who apply for aid through FEMA may be encouraged to apply with the Small Business Administration as well.
Wednesday storms
The governor on Tuesday had expressed hopes that efforts to clean up debris left over from Friday's storms would limit the impact of Wednesday’s severe weather.
Officials across the state had warned Arkansans to be weather aware, as the severe weather was expected to begin moving through the state between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.
However, Sanders expressed optimism Wednesday about crews’ abilities to continue cleanup.
“Certainly the rain doesn’t help, the high winds that we’ve seen in different parts of the state are not ideal,” she said. “But the crews that have been working since Friday are continuing to work despite the fact that they’re working under tough weather conditions.”
Several tornado warnings and watches had been issued by Wednesday afternoon, and districts in Central Arkansas decided against in-class instruction for the day.
Minor damage caused by strong winds had been reported by the National Weather Service on Wednesday afternoon. In Poinsett County, a tree damaged a fire station, while in Mississippi County a tractor-trailer overturned on Interstate 55. Numerous downed trees were reported, the weather service said.
Roughly 4,500 Entergy customers remained without power at roughly 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to a utility outage map. The figure marks a drop of about 1,500 customers reported by the utility the previous evening.
The greatest number of affected customers was reported in Pulaski County, about 2,700, followed by Ouachita County with 460. Cross County, which was devastated by one of last week’s tornadoes, reported roughly 350 outages.
Electric cooperatives had about 43 customers without power at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the utility. Lafayette County reported the highest number of cooperative customers without power, at roughly 15.
Emergency services officials in Benton and Washington counties said that as of Wednesday morning they had received no reports of any storm damage.
Robert McGowen, Benton County’s public safety administrator, said the county had “no damage reports of any kind.”
“We dodged a bullet again,” McGowen said.
4:05 p.m.: WATCH: Sanders says new round of storms having minimal effect on cleanup efforts in Arkansas
Severe weather that stretched across Arkansas overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday has done little to curb cleanup and recovery efforts in the state, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
The governor spoke alongside U.S. Sen. John Boozman, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr., a Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator and other local officials during a news conference at Little Rock's Immanuel Baptist Church City Center, 315 N. Shackleford Road.
[Video not showing above? Click here: arkansasonline.com/45govupdate]
“Despite the fact that we’ve had weather challenges, we have not seen the energy or the effort from people that are out there removing debris and offering assistance slow down in any way,” Sanders said.
During the conference, FEMA Region 6 Administrator Tony Robinson urged residents affected by Friday’s storms to call their insurance provider if they have one, and then to apply for assistance by calling 1-800-621-3362 or visiting disasterassistance.gov.
Information for this article was contributed by Cynthia Howell of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and by Tracy Neal and Tom Sissom of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.