Nearly 4,000 Entergy Arkansas Inc. customers were without power in Garland County Sunday morning following a succession of severe thunderstorms overnight, and one family had to be rescued from their home due to rain-swollen Big Mazarn Creek.
Big Mazarn, a main tributary for Lake Hamilton, experienced some of the worst flooding in the county, rising into homes and creating a major road problem on Pearcy Road, where it dislodged an entire section of roadway.
Flooding of the Big Mazarn led to Sunday morning's swift-water rescue operation in the 200 block of Lantern Terrace in Pearcy. Autumn Carlisle, 70 West fire chief, said the water came to within 3 inches of the top of the residence's deck. She said that the responding agencies successfully got the residence's two occupants to safety without injury, and that everyone else in the area of the rescue was safe. The Hot Springs Fire Department, Lake Hamilton Volunteer Fire Department and Garland County Sheriff's Department also responded to the scene.
Carlisle said Big Mazarn also submerged the Pearcy Road bridge. She said that, over the course of the night, a substantial amount of debris was also moved by the creek, along with a boat and a dock that floated free.
Hot Springs Fire Chief Ed Davis said his department had responded to nine calls related to the storm as of 6:24 a.m. Sunday. Most of the calls they received were related to downed power lines and lightning strikes. The one fire that his department responded to over the course of the night was at the Clinton Cultural Campus on Oak Street, near the Central Fire Station, which was quickly taken care of and is currently under investigation, he said.
"They had a busy night," Davis said of his firefighters. "They were up most of the evening dealing with those issues."
Entergy was releasing more than 45,000 cubic feet per second of water through Remmel Dam early Sunday morning to maintain the levels of lakes Catherine and Hamilton. Hamilton "rose dramatically" before spillway gates were opened to stop its rise, Entergy's Hydro Operations office said in an email and on social media Sunday morning.
One of the biggest rises overnight was Big Mazarn. By around 6 a.m., It appeared to have peaked at 16.56 feet. Entergy said it had received one report of water in a house on Arrowpoint Road.
Lake Hamilton, which was at 400.11 feet above mean sea level, had dropped back to 399.9 feet msl by midmorning. The lake is generally kept in a 1-foot band between 398.9 feet msl and 399.9 feet msl during the summer. By midafternoon, Entergy had deactivated its high-flow event triggered when the release from Remmel Dam reached 30,000 cubic feet per second of water. The peak discharge out of Remmel Dam was approximately 44,785 cfs.
Overnight, Entergy said the Garland County area received between 2 and 5 inches of rain. Lake Catherine remained at around 303.5 feet msl.
Kimberly Bogart, lakes and property coordinator with Entergy's Hydro Operations office, said that as of 9:15 a.m. Sunday all the tributaries into the two lakes had crested and were trending down.
The number of outages in the county had dropped to around 600 by 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Jim Garland, Entergy's manager of region customer service, estimated that power would be restored to all Garland and Montgomery County customers who can safely receive power by 10 p.m. today.
"There are about 77 customers in the Glenwood area along Vaughn Road who cannot be restored until the Caddo River recedes enough to safely work the outages," Garland said Sunday in an email. Garland said that the high winds and heavy rains arrived in several waves overnight causing "widespread and significant outages across the Garland and Montgomery County area."
In addition to the nearly 4,000 customers without power in Garland County, around 3,000 were without power in Montgomery County. "Most of the outages were caused by lightning strikes and tree limbs falling on the power lines," Garland said. "Fortunately there were only a few broke poles caused by the winds and falling trees. We are currently doing damage assessment on the remaining outages to determine an estimated restoration time. We are also working to secure additional repair crews to assist local crews in the restoration effort."
The largest outage in the Hot Springs area was along Carpenter Dam Road, affecting 1,800 customers, Garland said. That outage was resolved at around 11:45 a.m. Sunday. The remainder of the outages in were scattered throughout Garland County, he said.
The largest outage in Montgomery County was along Highway 270 east of Mount Ida back to Mountain Harbor area. About 2,000 customers were impacted by the outage. Power was restored to the area about noon Sunday, leaving about 500 outages in Montgomery County.
By Sunday morning, the water had uprooted an entire section of asphalt on Pearcy Road just north of the Big Mazarn bridge and pushed it into the road's east ditch. Much debris from trees and water were also laying in the road, which County Judge Rick Davis, who lives in the affected area, was clearing away with his backhoe.
Davis said that over the course of this week and next the county will be focusing on fixing the damaged asphalt and roadways and clearing away fallen trees. He said that he urges the county's residents to be "cautious" and "patient."
Davis also encouraged anyone who finds damaged roadways or fallen trees to contact the county, as they may not be able to find some of the affected areas on their own.
"We'll be finding stuff all this week that is damaged," Davis said. "We'd encourage people to help us find them."
Bogart said Entergy is not anticipating any additional significant rainfall over the next few days, and urged caution on the lakes, due to floating debris washed into the water by the storms.
"We are not anticipating any more significant rainfall over the next few days and will be returning the lakes to their current target levels. We will be monitoring lake levels and adjusting flow accordingly. Our release schedule should be returning to its normal schedule as soon as the weather passes out of the area," she said.
"We advise lakefront property owners and downstream river users to be aware of the weather and understand that this is a flash flood prone river valley. Please take the appropriate precautions against flash flooding. Again, this event has most likely caused a substantial amount of debris on the lakes so we advise boaters to use caution."
Local on 05/01/2017