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About 26K Arkansas residents without power after hurricane winds swept through state

About 26,000 Arkansas residents are without power after hurricane winds sweep the state overnight on Jul 20.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - UPDATE: Entergy crews have limits on how many hours they can work. City director Lance Hines said on Twitter that relief crews wouldn't arrive in time tonight, so parts of West Little Rock will remain without power at least until tomorrow. As of 10:30 p.m., there are around 26,000 Arkansas residents still without power.

UPDATE: About two hours have passed since the latest update, and according to Entergy Arkansas outage details, about 29,000 residents remain without power. This was recorded at 8:30 p.m.

UPDATE: Linemen continue to work on the outages throughout the affected areas. As of 6:00 p.m., the number of outages has dropped, leaving about 32,000 residents without power.

UPDATE: As of 3:30 p.m., the number of residents without power has dropped to roughly 36,000.

UPDATE: About 41,000 residents are now without power.

UPDATE: The number of Arkansans without power has decreased from more than 60,000 to a little more than 50,000.

Kerri Case, senior communications specialist for Entergy, said that the company is still assessing storm damage using scouts.

Crews worked overnight to try to provide as many people with power as possible. Although some linemen were sent home because they had worked too many consecutive hours, all linemen that can work are working to restore power.

"We are trying to get it back on as quickly as is safely possible," Case said.

Contractors and crews from Louisiana are providing additional help to the restoration efforts.

Case also stressed the importance of caution around downed power lines. She said that anyone approaching such a line should turn around immediately and call Entergy. Their phone number is 800-ENTERGY.

"It is 100 percent not safe," Case said. "You can't tell by looking whether a downed line is live or not."

Case said most of the storm damage is concentrated in central Arkansas with significant pockets of damage near Russellville and Stuttgart.

ORIGINAL: More than 60,000 residents across the state are without power according to Entergy's outage map on July 21. Most of the outages, more than 46,000, are concentrated in the Little Rock metropolitan area. West Little Rock appears to have taken the brunt of the damage.

Nathan Scott said winds could have been between 60 and 85 mph overnight and into the early morning.

We will update this article with comment from Entergy when we get in touch with the company.

Here are photos from around the state:

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