Crews rushing to recover from and prepare for more winter weather in Arkansas
LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Already, thousands of hours have gone into cleaning up snowfall and ice around Arkansas this week.
Crews around the state are working tirelessly to recover from this week's snowfall and prepare for more incoming wintry weather that may hit next week.
ARDOT District 10 Engineer Brad Smithee said that his crews are making plans for the coming week’s weather system.
“Had good luck with our equipment. We didn’t have a lot of fatigue or mechanical problems,” said Smithee in an interview with our content partner, Region 8 News. “We feel like we’re in very good shape for this next opportunity next week.”
Smithee and District 5 Engineer Bruce Street said they’re doing well in terms of resources.
“We didn’t have to use a lot of it during this last event. The temperatures held to above freezing for the most part,” Street said. “We did not consume as much salt as you normally would if the temperatures had dropped below freezing. We’re okay with salt. We do have additional salt on order.”
MAJOR SNOWSTORM BEGINS TUESDAY FOR PARTS OF ARKANSAS
North Arkansas Electric Cooperative persevered through the sheer volume of Tuesday’s winter storm.
Mel Coleman, the Cooperative's CEO, said that their warehouses still have enough supplies.
“Our supplies are holding out. We talked the other day about supply chain; we keep a lot of inventory here on hand just for this instance,” Coleman said.
“Had this of been similar to what happened in ‘09, we’d be scurrying to get poles," he said.
The Craighead Electric Cooperative also said that their supply stocks remain full.
“Thankfully, we are not having any supply chain issues,” Hook said. “We’ve kept an eye on it knowing the winter was coming, but we’re hoping this next round misses us.”
