After several tornadoes swept through Arkansas on March 31, crews at electric cooperatives across Arkansas worked tirelessly to restore service to members impacted by the storms.
At the peak of the storms, cooperatives collectively had about 10,000 outages among the 17 member systems. First Electric of Jacksonville and Woodruff Electric of Forrest City experienced the worst of the outages, primarily in Cross and Lonoke counties.
Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corporation (AECC), the generation and transmission provider for the state’s 17 local electric distribution providers, replaced more than 23 transmission structures that were damaged or destroyed east of Wynne.
Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI) and contract crews were called in to assist with the restoration process. AECI also dispatched lineworkers and equipment to assist North Little Rock Electric with power outages caused by the storms.