Sudden storm whips up damage

A short-lived but powerful storm moved through Mississippi County Wednesday evening, dumping some much-needed rain on the area and causing significant power outages.

According to Entergy representative Russell Harris, at the height of the outage, his company had 5,800 customers without power across the county, about 4,000 of which were in the city of Blytheville. Entergy and contracted personnel are still involved in restoration; around 150 customers in the area are still without power as of this morning, and efforts are still ongoing.

"The bulk of the power was restored over the course of the evening," said Harris. "We had folks working through the overnight hours."

Around 400 customers of Mississippi County Electric Co-op were without power over the course of the night, according to director Brad Harrison, who said most of their outages were because of downed trees and wind. He added that a few isolated outages are still coming in and restoration efforts are ongoing today.

Structural damage was reported to one home and a shed near Blytheville on Wednesday. A Mississippi County sheriff's dispatcher said there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Power restoration will likely be important to area residents as the current heat wave continues today (Thursday), with highs in the mid-90s and heat indexes predicted to reach up to 106 by the afternoon. Cooler weather is not expected until the weekend, with Saturday's high only expected to reach the upper 70s.

sharris@blythevillecourier.com